# International network number

An international network number sits under a calling code the ITU gives a global service rather than a country, such as +870, +881, +882 or +883, so its country is null.

Date: 2026-09-27

An international network number is a number under a calling code the ITU assigns to a global service instead of a country, so it belongs to no national numbering plan and no national regulator's table. The ITU's list of assigned E.164 country codes (the annex to Operational Bulletin 1114, position on 15 December 2016, https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/opb/sp/T-SP-E.164D-2016-PDF-E.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026) lists ten codes assigned to global services, and libphonenumber 9.0.37 reads nine of them, all but +991, a shared code for trials of a proposed new service: +800 International Freephone Service, +808 International Shared Cost Service, +870 Inmarsat, +878 Universal Personal Telecommunication, +881 Global Mobile Satellite System, +882 and +883 International Networks, +888 Telecommunications for Disaster Relief and +979 International Premium Rate Service.

## What Spaw answers

`country`, `country_name` and `region` are null and `timezones` is empty: no country's plan or table covers these numbers. `carrier_code` and `carrier_brand` are null too, and `carrier` is null unless the numbering metadata's prefix data names a network for the range, as it does for every +881 range (a +881 6 number answers "iridium satellite") and for a few +882 ranges; no regulator's table stands behind those names. `calling_code` carries the code and `line_type` the numbering metadata's type for the range. The [`international_network`](/docs/signals/phone/international_network) signal, +30, fires for four codes only, +870, +881, +882 and +883, the satellite and international networks, and it adds to any line-type weight. That metadata types every +883 range as VoIP, so before any other signal a +883 number scores `voip` +30 and `international_network` +30, 60 in all; +870 and +882 hold both mobile and VoIP ranges, so theirs score 30 or 60, and +881 numbers, typed mobile, 30. A score of 60 is `high` but still passes the default SMS policy, whose ceiling blocks only a score above 60.

The other five codes are scored by their type alone. +979 numbers are `premium_rate` (+60), which the default SMS policy blocks as a signal; +878 numbers are `voip` (+30) and +808 numbers `shared_cost` (+20); +800 numbers are `toll_free` and +888 numbers `uan`, and neither type carries a weight.

## What it does not mean

The signal says which kind of calling code the number sits under, not who uses it or why. A ship, an aircraft, a remote site and a machine network all number from these codes. What they share is that no country answers for them, which is why an SMS policy with `allowed_countries` set refuses numbers under all nine codes with `blocked_by: country`: a number with no country is outside every allow-list, a business choice about where you send rather than a fraud verdict. Without a zone, `local_time` is null and a [calling window](/glossary/calling-window) cannot be checked.

Reference: https://spaw.co/glossary/international-network-number