Is There a Rising Problem with Allocated but Unused Number Ranges?

A recent blog by number range experts Biaas argues that both international revenue share fraud and wangiri are increasingly associated with number ranges that have been allocated for use, but which have no genuine use.

…many destinations which appear in international carrier price lists are not actually used for normal international traffic termination by consumers and businesses, and this can be for a multitude of reasons. Examples include license revocation by national overseas regulators, operators ceasing to trade, operators selling local number ranges to smaller operators without networks, or even an operator never building a planned network in the first place. We note that many allocated ranges in exotic sounding destinations have been kept in reserve for years, still not used by new customers who never materialised. Some ranges are even kept alive in national regulatory documentation and carrier price lists by using confusing banners and labels such as ‘value added services’.

Apparently these ranges are especially profitable for criminals.

…these destinations are often flagged up as being slightly more expensive within carrier price lists, giving fraudsters more value per call.

You can read the full blog here.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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