Important Change to the Twilio Phone Number Provisioning API

Important Change to the Twilio Phone Number Provisioning API

Regulatory Compliance (RC) requirements for phone numbers have increased worldwide. We have been working with regulators to ensure that phone numbers you provision are in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. As part of this engagement, we made an important change to the Twilio Phone Number Provisioning API.

You should have received email communications about this change if you use this API for phone numbers outside the US and Canada. To reiterate:

Starting September 10, 2019, the Phone Number Provisioning API will require you to provide an address for any new regulated number you provision. If you don’t include a valid address, you will receive error code 21631.

You can find address requirements for the country where you are provisioning numbers on our Phone Number Regulations page.

What’s Changing with the Twilio Phone Number Provisioning API?

Previously, address requirements were not enforced through the API. You could provision a number through the API then subsequently upload required regulatory documents and information via the Twilio Console or with the RC Pilot APIs. For more information on regulatory compliance, read here.

Effective September 10, address requirements will be enforced via the API, provided through an AddressSid. This means you will be required to provide addresses for newly provisioned regulated phone numbers.

Frequently asked questions about the Phone Number Provisioning API change

In this blog post, we wanted to address a few of the questions we’re seeing around the change.

You can find out more around this change here, as well as our timeline information here and changelog entry here.

Does this change apply to all phone numbers?

Only API calls provisioning numbers outside the US and Canada that fail to send an address are affected.

How does this change affect the numbers already in my account?

This change only affects newly provisioned phone numbers. Existing phone numbers in your current inventory should have been brought into compliance.

If you have not already taken this necessary action, your phone numbers are at risk of being reclaimed due to ongoing carrier and regulatory enforcement activity. Twilio will not proactively reclaim phone numbers that are out of compliance at this time, except where forced to do so by regulators or carriers. As a valued customer, we strongly urge you to prioritize bringing all existing phone numbers into compliance if you haven't already done so.

Why is this happening on September 10?

Regulatory compliance requirements for phone number users have increased worldwide. Depending on the phone number and its features, your or your company's status in the country, and your intentions for the number, different laws and regulations apply while building Voice, Fax, or SMS-based applications.

While some of these regulations are new, many of these laws and rules have been in effect for some time. Countries are increasing enforcement for many reasons – including fraud, incidents of misuse and abuse and heightened national security concerns.

All your Twilio phone numbers on Twilio’s platform need to comply with individual country requirements. We are making this change so that newly provisioned numbers begin on the path to compliance.

Regulatory Requirements, Twilio, and You

We partner with you, countries, and regulatory agencies. As we work with you on your compliance, we’re working with countries on these needs as well. Where possible, we’re working to enable new number types, advocating for smart changes in requirements that preserve value for you without harming the communications ecosystem, and exploring possible solutions that would make it easier for you to comply.

If you have further questions about this API change, you can find more info on:

• Phone Number Provisioning
• Phone Number Regulatory Compliance Video
• Phone Numbers Regulations

We’re happy to help you with these changes. If you can’t find the information you need, feel free to reach out to please reach out to support through the site or at help@twilio.com.