International Number Overview and FAQs

Purpose: 

The purpose of this article is to provide information to Outreach users regarding the purchasing of international phone numbers. 

Intended Audience: 

• Outreach Admins

Notes: 

• Outreach only offers Local or National type phones. Mobile numbers are unavailable for purchase within the Outreach platform.
• Due to governmental regulations, Outreach does not support the purchase of certain numbers without the required documentation. A list of required documentation is provided in-app as applicable when users attempt to purchase a number. 
• Outreach does not maintain a list of required documentation for international phone numbers. For more information on regulatory guidelines for international numbers, refer to the Twilio Regulatory Guidelines article. 
• Outreach provides phone numbers based on the available numbers Outreach's Session In Protocol (SIP) can provide. If you are purchasing a number from a country that indicates an address requirement, you will need to provide an address when purchasing that country's phone number in Outreach.
• For a list of available phone numbers, refer to the Twilio International Phone Number article and review the Dual Functionality and Voice-enabled Only sections for the following information: 
  • Preview or Beta - Outreach is unable to provide these numbers at this time. 
  • GA - This number can be purchased through Outreach.
  • Type of numbers offered - Indicates the number is either a local number, a mobile number or a national number. 

When purchasing an international phone number for a country with regulatory requirements, Outreach users and admins will be able to bypass support and directly purchase phone numbers in app. 

Users are presented with requirements for each country, can upload any necessary documents, and for cases that a number is not available for immediate purchase, see up-to-date document approval status for all of their requested countries. 

Purchasing Numbers with Address Requirements: 

There are two different requirements for purchasing international phone numbers. The first requires any address, regardless of whether the phone number is local to the region or foreign. The second requires a local address to either the region (city or state) or country. These regulations are specific to the country's governmental regulations.

If the country indicates an address requirement, you will need to provide an address when purchasing that country's phone number in Outreach. After selecting the country in which you wish to purchase a number, you will be guided in entering a new address meeting the requirements or selecting a previously entered address that meets the requirements.

A Note About Local Presence Internationally: 

If the rep owns a Spanish number, has an imported Spanish number, or the Org has an unassigned Spanish number, local presence will use that.

Note that local presence everywhere besides US/Can will only function down to the country level and not any specific geographic area inside other countries

If Outreach cannot find a number that already exists as described in number above, Outreach will attempt to purchase a Spanish number; however, Spain has regulatory requirements for number purchasing so it can go 1 of 2 ways: 

• The Org does not have any approved regulatory docs. If this is the case, Outreach cannot purchase a Spanish number and will just use another Org number. Outreach attempts to do so based on closeness (i.e. if they have a UK number we should try to use that instead of USA but that doesn't work 100% of the time). 
• The Org does have an approved doc. If this is the case Outreach will purchase a Spanish number. 

Outreach suggests that if people want to use local presence for international calling, they review the requirements for the countries beforehand. If they can meet them, they should do so and purchase a number for that country but leave it unassigned. This way any rep that calls that country using local presence will have an in-country number."

International Number Purchase FAQs: 

Q: Does anything change for countries that have no address or documentation requirements?
A: Nope! Users will be able to purchase numbers that have no requirements  the same way they always have.

Q: How can I view the status of documents that have been submitted?
A: It depends on your governance profile:

• If you are not an admin, you will be able to see the existing document bundles as well as their status when you attempt to purchase a number for a country. It will only show the applicable documents for the country selected.
• If you are an admin, the above applies as well, and  there is a section under “phones” in settings which shows all existing document bundles and their status. If the documents were rejected for any reason, information on the rejection will also be present.

Q: My documents were rejected and I received an error message; how should I proceed?
A: The errors we receive are pulled directly from Twilio’s compliance team. In the event you run into this issue, contact Outreach support for assistance.

Q: The requirements presented in Outreach for a country are different than the ones listed on Twilio’s documentation website; which is correct?
A: The correct requirements are those listed directly inside Outreach when purchasing a number. We pull these requirements down from Twilio via API for every request so this is the most up-to-date information. Twilio's website is not updated as quickly as the data from their API.

Q: I want to purchase a number that requires documentation, but I don't know how to gather the required information; can I still purchase the number?
A: No. These are legal requirements that must be met and the only way for numbers to be purchased is to meet these requirements. Try reaching out to your admin / sales ops / leadership teams for further assistance. 

Q: I want to purchase a number that requires documentation, but I cannot provide the required documentation, can Outreach help me bypass these requirements?
A: No. The regulatory requirements are imposed at the governmental level, and cannot be waived, bypassed, or otherwise ignored. If you cannot provide the required documentation for a specific jurisdiction, you cannot purchase a number there within Outreach.

Q: Now that documentation has been submitted, when can I purchase numbers?
A: Numbers cannot be purchased until all requirements have been met and approved. The approval time varies by country. In most cases, documentation is approved within 48 hours, but it may take up to a week.

Q: My documentation has been approved but I’m still unable to purchase a number for that country. Why is that?
A: Generally when this happens it is because a country has very specific requirements around what numbers can be assigned to a given address. A good example of this is France who requires that a number prefix matches the locality of your address perfectly. For example, if you have an address in Lyon, you cannot purchase a number for Paris. Your address may not even meet requirements for all numbers in Lyon. Outreach support can liaise with Twilio to help purchase the correct number for your address.

Q: My documentation has been approved, but I don’t see any numbers available for purchase. How do obtain numbers?
A: If you are trying to purchase a phone number for a jurisdiction in the list below, these are considered custom order numbers only due to strict regulation requirements. Once documents have been approved in our portal, please reach out to Support with the jurisdiction and number of phone numbers that should be purchased. Support will work with Twilio to get the appropriate amount of numbers ordered and added to the customer’s account.

• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Spain
• Singapore
• Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)

Q: Some of the documentation is of a sensitive nature. How do I know they are being handled properly?
A: Outreach sends these docs securely via SSL directly to Twilio. Twilio takes its responsibility to safeguard your sensitive personal data very seriously. Accordingly, Twilio applies technical controls such as encryption, access logging and least privileged access when processing this data. In addition to technical controls, Twilio staff undergoes training on the proper handling of this data. Twilio is committed to applying the highest standards of protection for personal data and accordingly has implemented Binding Corporate Rules. In addition, Twilio is ISO 27001 certified.