Out of context.

This is not a motorcycle question or thread.
So I'll apologise before you read further.

I have a question for the international folk, I'm in Australia, about phone numbers.

In Australia we have 3 mobile phone providers and the numbers are specifically always starting with 4. (After the iso prefix)

I see Germany, Great Britain, New Zealand and Japan have the same sort of structure albeit a few more indexes, in some, for mobile.

US and Canada seem to have no specific indexes though. I have read that a mobile number can be ported to a landline/voip or vice versa in the US/Canada locations. Strange but kinda understandable with feature creep.

I would appreciate any info on this. I'm writing a backend to a PBX/SMS/mms system and it is driving me bonkers when I try to differentiate between mobile capable numbers and non mobile capable numbers.

Obviously I despise third party evil APIs, haha, so yeah no lookups for me.

Just to elaborate. This is about replying to incoming calls from other countries and whether I can allow SMS/MMS replies or only calls and not about spamming outbound.

If you have info I appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

Don't know if this is helpful, but North America uses 10 digit phone numbers, could be mobile or landline... the first 3 digits are the Area Code, and a large city may have more than one. Next is a local exchange and a 4 digit number. In the old days, if we made a long distance call it was necessary to dial 1 in front of the 10 digit number. These days it seems the telco's automatically differentiate long distance calls, whether you dial the 1 or not. E.g., I can dial anyone in North America or send SMS without entering the 1.

 

Thanks for the help. Sounds like the same thing here.
The telcos understand local and push international with a bit extra, it is 0011 before an international call on landlines/voip here but via mobile the +<country prefix> works fine.

I did check a long list of US/Canada prefixes that defined states for the incoming call, but because of the... Freedom maybe... Of porting between landline and mobile and that there is no definition between either it makes it useless from a technical standpoint. Mobile, local? Who knows. Wait... Google and apple might! Screw them though.

I think I may be at a dead end with the index of first number after country code with the US/Canada segment which is a shame.

Don't get me wrong there are a whole riot of countries I have no idea about also but in the last decade only the international +1 calls have been genuine as far as I can tell.

Go figure.

Thanks again I appreciate your response.

 

Well our landline telco sure differentiates between "local" and "long distance" calls (not true for mobile, though) .......and the definition of "local" vs. "long distance" is a fuzzy, blurry mess. Area code proliferation has exploded within the USA, and the LATA protocols (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Access_and_Transport_Area) throw everything into a big, evolving blender of telephony hell. Although I'm sure that there are excellent over-riding reasons for doing so, it seems that it's mainly a result of political forces (the 1984 break-up of AT&T), and although it may have led to (temporarily) lower prices introduced by subsequent competition among the spun-off "Baby Bell" units, it also destroyed any aspects of having a coordinated "phone system" in the US....all we have now are "phones" and a confusing mish-mash of competing carriers and services/claims which overwhelms consumers with (mostly fake) "choices" which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't (for example, at my office we have no cellular service, even though we are smack-dab in the heart of one of America's largest and premier cities; we have to drive about 3/4-mile (in any direction) to secure mobile service.

P.S. this is real fun when trying to deal with a bank (or others) that requires 2-Factor-Authentication to use their online banking services, and don't offer a phone call or e-mail option for the 2FA code-delivery.....only a text message option.....which means I must go thru the log-in procedure, get in my car and drive up the road until signal is achieved, and then hurry back to reach the computer and enter the code before it "expires" (typically 5 minutes or so). So if you happen to be around here and see me suddenly go blazing up the street pedal-to-the-metal, ignoring stop signs and traffic lights like my hair is on fire, you'll know why......I was just trying to achieve log-in to the bank so I could pay a bill or whatever.

Even AT&T's "advanced-phone" cellular service (dual source) cellular-over-fiber works like crap, as the cellular is not quite powerful enough to drop out (and allow the fiber to take over) so you get this 1980's era mobile phone level of sound quality and connectivity.

Luckily we still have landline (copper wire) service, but........they're dropping that service (and have been threatening to do so for the last 10 years or so) and it's only a matter of time before that goes the way of the dodo bird.

So, good luck in figuring it all out. De-regulation and monopoly-busting works well for some things, but not all.

I'm not sure you are going to be able to find this unicorn, as I don't think it exists. Although a number, once assigned, is designated as a landline vs. a mobile number, I think (but may be wrong) that numbers are assigned from a non-differentiated pool of numbers assigned to a carrier, and thus, for example, 404-231-0098 may be an AT&T landline number, and 404-231-0099 may be a Verizon mobile number, etc. And of course you can "forward" a phone number from one type to another (404-231-0098 can be, via the customer keypad, forwarded to their 404-231-0099 mobile number), but that's just software/hardware manipulation at the local telco (and as I understand it, you can have a call to any one number of yours ring on ALL of your registered/designated numbers with one carrier, if you so choose to do so; but that's just a variation of the "forwarded call" situation).


Addendum: with mobile service, the use of the 1+ prefix for outside-the-LATA-area is not needed, but with landline service, the 1+ is most definitely necessary, and........go figure......sometimes I have to dial the 1 + area code + phone number within (for example) the 706 area code (northern Georgia, predominately) and other times I don't....it depends on where (at what particular physical location and/or carrier?) the 706 number is located/assigned to.

And another addendum: I think I've mentioned to you before....it's hard to understand "America" from the outside. For various reasons, we march to a different drummer(s)....we still use inches and feet here.....and the drumstick specs are "fluid" and subject to change at a moment's notice....and sometimes, it's perfectly fine to use broken drumsticks or even sledgehammers as drumsticks depending on whim, the weather, and what someone had for lunch that day.

 

Damn.
Well that answers my question.
I can see why I was running in circles on the +1 prefix.
It may be the first country on the iso list but it also means that it is the oldest in take-up of spec, even though the original spec was created there.
Makes sense. You know ... Metric and all.. low blow! forgive me.
Thanks chacal and CB radio should just be more widespread. Stupid phones and telcos. 10-4 big daddy.

 

Food for thought, if your business is in the hub of a city, and you have no cell service, that is by design. I am a retired phone guy from the USAF. There are many reason to make dead areas and easy to do. Depending on what your company does or the other business in your down town area, I am sure it is by design there is no coverage.

The growth of phone service scene the 1990 has been exponential. We used to only have few services, a plain old telephone (POT) or landline, and direct hotlines. The internet changed many things with the phone business. Just know that when it comes to sorting out information, the phone complines keep the shortest route to keep things fast and to make money. Telephone switches, voice over internet protocol, compression rate devices and so many other systems in play and handshake in a very short amount of time to make your call. The call jumps from landlines, cell, fiber and other compression devices along with internet data now days. There is a telephone protocol that has to be used around the world for a call to jump from system to system.

 

Interesting.......we sell antique motorcycle parts, nearest business (2 suites down) re-cycles scrap metals, at the other end of the building they make custom acrylic display cases for retail stores. What might be some reasons why dead zones are created?