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Comment by shrubble | Hacker News Reader

First I would use unlec.com to determine where it is currently allocated. The SPID/OCN tells you who has it. SPID = Service Provider ID; OCN = Operating Company Name.

Then look at the LNP history, which is the history of who and when the number was assigned/re-assigned over the years.

Tell both companies that you will be involving the FCC and try to reach the "porting group" who will be able to fix this. Porting problems happen all the time, even with 99% of ports (that might be an optimistic number) happening in a nearly-automatic fashion. (EDIT: I mean the porting group at each company, not the FCC).

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Looks like it got the HN hug of death.

"site reached maximum daily limit, contact admin" upon searching.

Since you can't call it the slashdot effect, obviously...

Is there an equivalent site for the UK?

I don't have such a rich source as OP, but Ofcom have some information

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/inform...

The only thing I know of for the UK that's sort of similar (but not really), is this one:

https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/codelook.htm

If you put in a landline or mobile telephone prefix, it can tell you which network the number was originally allocated to, but it can't tell you if the number has been ported.

Aren't all UK numbers owned by BT?

what is a good source for this data? their terms stipulate against scraping, but I'm curious if there is an authentic "open" source for the raw data?

The authoritative database is owned by Neustar[1] and is non-public.

There are entities that subscribe to the service and fulfill those queries (such as unlec.com or whatever reseller they're getting the information via).

But the Neustar revenue model is to charge per query which is why that site limits the number of queries one can perform.

Every time you place a phone call in US or Canada, the originating carrier does a lookup against the Neustar-NPAC database (also called a "dip") to determine the routing destination for your call.

Only after that response (called a "LRN" or location routing number) is received does call routing truly begin.

1: https://www.npac.com/canadian-number-portability/the-npac-ne...

> Every time you place a phone call in US or Canada, the originating carrier does a lookup against the Neustar-NPAC database (also called a "dip") to determine the routing destination for your call.

Is this able to determine if the phone is connected through wifi calling? (There was a discussion yesterday where some one suggested SMS may not be sent to a phone connected to wifi only if the sender did not wish to but I could not see a mechanism that would allow that determination.)

There is a separate field called OLI, originating line indicator, that indicates whether landline, cellular or other. From memory, it's 0 for landline and 62 or 63 for cellular.

I doubt you can reliably determine if on Wifi or not, although of course the carrier handling that phone would know.

They're likely referring to the data that comes out of LIDB[1] which is not a real-time indicator. Instead, it's what the carrier has stored against that phone number.

The LIDB data will consist of a field that marks that phone number as a landline, broadband (aka VoIP), cellular, etc.

There are some 2FA implementations you come across will look up whether a number you're trying to enroll is classified as anything other than cellular, and if so, it gets rejected.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_information_database

Thanks for the clarification. That is what I thought as well. I've heard of people being able to use Google Voice or other VoIP from 2FA even when it would normally be rejected by using a cellular number that they then port to Google Voice.

Based on what I've read, some video games are able to determine if you're using a prepaid plan or post paid. I suppose they might just look up the carrier to determine that since it doesn't seem like that level of granularity is available. And the port trick may work there as well.

My work number is a Google voice number, but was my 'real' number before segmentation in hopes of gaining sanity with my phone (sidenote, if anyone is self employed and busy enough to be debating such a plan, do it, no regrets), and I've had zero issues with 2FA coming through to my once a cell number now a voice number.

Mostly, but not every time.

I also have a Google Voice-backed number (since before Google acquisition, when it was Grand Central), and every now and then I find a site that doesn't accept GV numbers for 2FA. A recent example was Simplisafe.

Does anyone know where "Fraud Risk" and "Textable" come from in unlec's database? My number has fraud risk = high, and textable = No -- even though text works just fine via GV, and it's a personal number with minimal use, so no reason for flag (other than some companies not liking virtual carriers).

Not exactly the raw data, but Twilio has a cheap and easy-to-use API for this: https://www.twilio.com/docs/lookup.

https://developers.telnyx.com/docs/api/v2/number-lookup/Numb... Not open but this is a decent option for bulk. I believe it runs $0.0015 per number. I don't believe it does the port history though

what a fascinating site! interesting that it has a fraud risk level for phone numbers, among other interesting info.

Do we know where this site is getting its data? Given the site is down, maybe there's an option to pay for a lookup from some authoritative source.

Site is not working

Wow TIL.

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