Automated Identification of Recycled and Ported Mobile Numbers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods lack an efficient way to distinguish between recycled and ported mobile numbers, which complicates compliance with regulations like the TCPA, leading companies to err on the side of caution and potentially miss communicating with valid subscribers.
Innovation Solution
An automated method that receives a list of deactivated mobile numbers, uses third-party data sources via APIs to identify current carriers, and determines if numbers are recycled or ported, updating opt-in databases accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If companies stop all communications to deactivated mobile numbers to avoid TCPA violations, then compliance risk is reduced, but legitimate communications with valid subscribers are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments deactivated numbers into two categories: recycled numbers (same carrier) and ported numbers (different carrier). By querying a third-party data source to determine current carrier assignment, the system distinguishes between these segments and applies different communication strategies: blocking communications to recycled numbers while allowing communications to ported numbers, thus maintaining compliance while preserving legitimate communications.
2Measurement precision
If automated identification of recycled numbers is implemented, then communication accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a third-party data source as an intermediary to determine current carrier assignment for deactivated numbers. This external service handles the complex lookup and carrier identification logic, allowing the provider's system to maintain relatively simple architecture while achieving accurate differentiation between recycled and ported numbers through API queries to the intermediary service.
Data Source
AI summary
An automated method begins by receiving a list of numbers that have been de-activated by a carrier. Periodically, and for each number, a request is made to identify a current carrier for the number. If the current carrier matches the carrier that provided the de-activation information, the mobile number is considered to be in a first state, i.e., shut off and returned to a pool of numbers that are available to this same carrier. Upon a determination that the number is in the first state, the provider issues a request to any opt-in database to delete any express consent or other similar data associated with the number. If, however, the number does not match the carrier of deactivation, the number is considered to be in a second state, i.e., likely to have been ported by the same user to a new carrier. This state is logged in an audit trail.