Current Carrier

The Current Carrier insight identifies the mobile network operator that is currently assigned for a given phone number. Unlike insights based on original assignment, this capability reflects number portability, offering up-to-date information about which carrier a phone number is associated with.

This insight is essential in scenarios where communication efficiency, deliverability, and user verification are critical. By confirming whether a number is actively assigned to a mobile network, businesses can ensure accurate routing of SMS, voice, or data-based communications. This allows organizations to avoid unnecessary costs and operational inefficiencies associated with contacting deactivated (not associated with any carrier) or non-mobile numbers.

One of the key use cases includes cleansing and updating customer databases, ensuring that contact information is both current and valid. For example, identifying that a number is no longer asigned to a mobile carrier can help avoid failed messages, reduce retries, and maintain a high quality of user engagement. It also supports privacy-conscious outreach by focusing on mobile numbers, which are typically more personal and likely to be used by an individual, compared to landline, virtual or premium lines.

In fraud prevention and identity verification processes, knowing the current mobile carrier can serve as a signal to validate user legitimacy and reduce risk.

By leveraging this insight, businesses gain better control over their communication workflows, improve user experience, and optimize engagement strategies based on real-time phone number intelligence.

Prerequisites

To use Identity Insights, you must ensure your account is configured correctly; see the Getting Started guide for more information on:

• Creating your account,
• Creating a Vonage application for use with the Identity Insights API,
• The different environments available and how to configure your account to use them,
• And how to use the Dashboard Getting Started UI to use the API without writing any code.

This guide will explain how to use the Current Carrier Insight programatically using cURL.

Making an API Call

Authentication for the Identity Insights API is done via JWTs, a compact and self-contained JSON token. To generate a JWT, you can use our online generator, or alternatively use the Vonage CLI. You will need your application ID and private key to generate the JWT. Once you have your JWT, you can send a request to the API.

This example shows a cURL request for the Current Carrier insight:

curl -X POST https://api-eu.vonage.com/v0.1/identity-insights \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "phone_number": "14040000000",
    "purpose": "FraudPreventionAndDetection",
    "insights": {
      "current_carrier": {}
        }
    }'

The API will then return information about the network the phone number is currently assigned to, including the name, network type, and country code:

{
  "request_id": "c2cc7a65-9b10-493f-9c0a-1c86751a91c4",
  "insights": {
    "current_carrier": {
         "name": "Orange Espana, S.A. Unipersonal",
         "network_type": "MOBILE",
         "country_code": "ES",
         "network_code": "21403",
         "status": {
            "code": "NO_COVERAGE",
            "message": "Success"
         }
      }
  }
}

You'll see the following fields in the current_carrier array:

Further Reading

• Read more about the Identity Insights API in the API Reference.
• If you have any questions, you can reach out to us on the Vonage Community Slack.