20 Nov Anonymisation or blocking of calls from abroad with a national number:European countries are divided
To fight against phone number spoofing, European countries use various regulations. These regulations may relate to calls made by operators’ domestic customers, or to calls received by these operators on their international interconnections. In the first case, the prosecution of a domestic customer with a spoofed number is within the reach of the national law enforcement authorities. In the second, these national authorities are much more helpless, since number spoofing is generally not a serious enough offence for international cooperation between the law enforcement authorities to be implemented. The main regulations in question relate to the anonymisation or blocking of fixed or mobile calls with national calling numbers and received by national operators on their international interconnections.
Out of eighteen European countries studied, five families of regulations emerge:
- Six countries (Belgium[i], Czech Republic[ii], Finland[iii], Ireland[iv], Italy[v], Spain[vi]) ask their operators to block fixed and mobile calls with national numbers on incoming international interconnections, except in the case of roaming of their national customers abroad. These cases of roaming are handled by a query, by the national operator of an incoming international interconnection, of the operator of the number presented, in order to know in real time whether the customer in question is roaming or not.
- Two countries (Norway[vii] and Sweden[viii]) apply the same requirement, but only for calls with a mobile number. In Sweden, it is a decision of the regulator. In Norway, this action is presented, on the regulator’s website, as an initiative of mobile operators.
- Operators in France and the United Kingdom[ix] block calls with a national fixed number on incoming international interconnections, but do not extend this requirement to calls with national mobile numbers. As French operators have not set up real-time sharing of roaming information due to the prevalence of home routing[x], the regulator[xi] proposes to require the anonymisation (in the form of a series of 9 digits) of calls with French mobile numbers on incoming national interconnections.
- The German-speaking countries (Germany[xii], Austria[xiii], Switzerland[xiv]) require the anonymisation of calls with national numbers on incoming international interconnections and only invite operators to block these calls if they are certain that the call is harmful.
- Finally, five European countries (Bulgaria[xv], Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia) have apparently not taken any initiative in this area.
[i] Belgium – https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/article.pl?language=fr&sum_date=2024-06-13&lg_txt=f&pd_search=2024-06-13&s_editie=1&numac_search=2024005253&caller=sum&2024005253=6&view_numac=2024005253nx2024005253f
[ii] Czech Republic – https://ctu.gov.cz/sites/default/files/obsah/stranky/36864/soubory/VOS2_změna_spoofing2024.pdf
[iii] Finland- https://www.lausuntopalvelu.fi/FI/Proposal/Participation?proposalId=fdea1eac-e2e5-4ef2-8c1f-17
[iv] Ireland- https://www.comreg.ie/industry/electronic-communications/nuisance-communications/
[v] Italy- https://www.agcom.it/provvedimenti/delibera-106-25-cons
[vi] Spain- https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2025-2870
[vii] Norway – https://nkom.no/telefoni-og-telefonnummer/arbeidsgruppe-nummer/_/attachment/inline/df37e670-2dc5-48cd-a0bc-283ff821f2b3:820eae6b9a94cad14dd8efa05877ca68b66e6ace/Arbeidsgruppe%20Nummer%20-%20referat%20fra%20m øte%20105%20-%2030.%20May%202024.pdf
[viii] Sweden – https://www.pts.se/contentassets/703670533d914135b187149dbdcb366d/vagledning_slutlig_en_pts.pdf
[ix] United Kingdom – https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/consultations/category-2-6-weeks/276698—further-action-to-tackle–scam-calls/associated-documents/annex-2-cli-guidance-2024-update.pdf?v=393568
[x] Home routing : routing of calls of a roaming out customer to his/her home country via the operator of the calling number rather than via the operator of the called number or a transit operator.
[xi] France – https://www.arcep.fr/actualites/actualites-et-communiques/detail/n/plan-de-numerotation-230725.html
[xii] Germany – https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Vportal/TK/Aerger/Faelle/Manipulation/artikel.html
[xiii] Austria – https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20006383
[xiv] Switzerland – https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2007/166/fr#art_26_a and https://www.bakom.admin.ch/dam/fr/sd-web/IBkjWsrL9Kz-/Swiss Anti-Spoofing Technical Specification – V1.2.pdf
[xv] Bulgaria – https://crc.bg/files/TR/numbers/regulatorna%20politika%20numbering.pdf