Overview
DQE supports phone validation for a wide range of countries, but coverage depends on your licence and on the completeness of national telecom databases. When an international number returns an unexpected or negative result, the cause is usually one of the following.
The country is not included in your licence
Phone validation is sold by country. A number from Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Togo, or any other country can only be validated if that country is active in your DQE contract.
Sending a number for a country that is not in your licence will produce a negative result — not because the number is invalid, but because DQE has no coverage for it.
What to do: Log in to My DQE to see which countries are active, or contact your DQE account manager to expand your coverage.
The number is being sent without the correct international prefix
DQE identifies the country of a number from its international dialling prefix. Numbers sent without a prefix — or with a local format such as 06 12 34 56 78 instead of +33612345678 — may not be correctly attributed to their country.
Always send numbers in E.164 format: +[country code][subscriber number].
| Country | Country code | Correct format example |
|---|---|---|
| France | +33 | +33612345678 |
| Spain | +34 | +34612345678 |
| Belgium | +32 | +32470123456 |
| United Kingdom | +44 | +447911123456 |
| Germany | +49 | +4915123456789 |
| Netherlands | +31 | +31612345678 |
| Togo | +228 | +22890123456 |
| Andorra | +376 | +376312345 |
| Morocco | +212 | +212612345678 |
The number range is not yet in the DQE database
National regulators assign new number ranges to operators periodically. If a range was recently allocated, DQE may not yet recognise it. This is more common for countries with less centralised numbering plans.
What to do: If you can confirm the number is active (it connects when dialled), open a support ticket and DQE can investigate a database update.
The result code indicates a specific reason
Rather than a simple pass/fail, DQE returns a detailed IdError code that explains why a number was not validated. Before escalating, check the code in the API Response Codes — Complete Reference.
Common codes for international numbers:
- 00012X — Number format valid but country not verified (country not in licence)
- 00011X — Number format valid but line type could not be confirmed
- 000030 — Number not found in national database
Still getting an unexpected result?
Open a support ticket with the full details. See What information should I provide for a phone validation investigation?