Phone Number Compliance is Easier with Reusable Objects

Phone Number Compliance is Easier with Reusable Objects

Today, we’re excited to let you know that we’re making Phone Number compliance easier by providing a more convenient workflow to fulfill regulatory requirements. By allowing you to reuse supporting documentation and identity information, meeting regulatory requirements and keeping all your new and existing numbers in compliance is easier than ever before!

With this enhancement, it will be much simpler for you to create Regulatory Bundles to provision new Phone Numbers. Additionally, if you have non-compliant Phone Numbers, it will be faster to bring those numbers to compliance.

Reusing Supporting Documentation and Identity Information (Regulatory Objects)

As you may know, Twilio’s Regulatory Compliance product enables you to fulfill regulatory requirements when provisioning Phone Numbers in regulated countries. To do so, you often must provide identity and supporting documentation to meet a country’s regulatory requirements.

To meet these regulations, we collect customer data in the form of Supporting Document and End-User objects, which you then assign to a Regulatory Bundle. A Regulatory Bundle is an object that acts as a container for regulatory compliance information. Regulatory Bundles are evaluated against country-specific regulations that dictate the different requirements for that specific phone number type and end-user type (individual or business) combination. In other words, a collection of Supporting Documents and End-User objects are used to satisfy a country's regulation. You can find more information about Phone Number Regulatory Compliance here.

You will now be able to reuse the information you have previously uploaded into the Twilio web Console, which will reduce the time you spend creating Regulatory Bundles. This means your Phone Numbers will be reviewed and provisioned much faster!

Frequently asked questions about reusing regulatory objects

Here’s a summary of why we’re introducing reusable objects and how this can benefit you. 

Why does this matter?

Regulatory compliance is about Knowing Your Customer (KYC) – most countries' and territories’ telecom regulators want to know the end-user who is answering voice calls or receiving messages.

Regulators want to know who the end-users are due to potential national threats, to prevent spam and fraud, and to generally protect the phone number as a national resource used as an end-user identifier. If you have not provided the necessary regulatory information and supporting documentation for your numbers in regulated geographies, your numbers are at risk of being disconnected.

Where do reusable objects fit into all of this?

The diagram below demonstrates the process of bringing a Twilio phone number into compliance. Essentially, you:

1. Check what’s required by local regulators
2. Collect documentation from the End-User, then create a Regulatory Bundle and submit it for review
3. Wait for the Regulatory Bundle to be reviewed (Evaluation)
4. Once the Regulatory Bundle has been Approved, assign the Bundle to your Phone Number(s)

Regulatory Bundles are constructed with item assignments of End-Users and Supporting Documents with Addresses for regulatory compliance.

With this change, you will be able to access existing Supporting Documents and End-User objects that match a given regulation when you provision a new Phone Number in the Twilio web Console.

How does this impact the Regulatory Compliance APIs?

This functionality was already available via the Twilio Public API. If you provision Phone Numbers via the API, this will not impact how you provision Phone Numbers.

What actions should I take around regulatory compliance?

It’s important to know whether your existing phone numbers are compliant with regulatory requirements so they stay connected and you can utilize them going forward.

You can either assess if you have non-compliant phone numbers using the Evaluations API or the Compliance Report in the Twilio web Console. If you discover any of your numbers are noncompliant, update your Bundle and submit it again for review. Once your Bundle is approved, you can assign it to your Phone Number(s).

For more information on Regulatory Compliance with Twilio, we’ve included links to documentation and other helpful resources:

Getting Started Pages

• Create a new Regulatory Bundle with v2 RC APIs 
• Create a new Regulatory Bundle with Twilio’s web Console 

Additional Resources

• Phone Number Regulatory FAQs
• Phone Number Regulations Guidelines

What should I do next?

We know phone number regulatory compliance can be a challenge. We’re here to partner with you and to provide solutions that will make it easier for you to manage your compliance status — for yourself, or for your end-customer.

We encourage you to view your Compliance Report in the Twilio Console, determine if you have non-compliant Phone Numbers, and if you do, bring your Phone Numbers into compliance faster with reusable objects.

Sebastián Jaramillo is an over-caffeinated Product Manager at Twilio. He is obsessed with Product Strategy, Product Design, and waffle recipes. Reach out to him at sjaramillo [at] twilio [dot] com if you want to talk digital products, espresso, or waffles.