We are aware of an issue with certain responses from the API and UI with regards to communication provider lookups. It seems that Ofcom can't maintain their own standards and keep changing the way they format the files we download. As we are also in the middle of redeveloping the service from the ground up, we may be a while updating things. Please look out for an email detailing this soon.
In a way, that question can be answered with a question, "Define what 'Valid' means?".
As much as this tool tries to give accurate information pertaining to number range holders, if a person or company decides to port a particular number away from that range holder or network, the range is data is still correct, however that one particular number does not form part of that range anymore.
This tool is useful in identifying who has what range and wether or not the number range is allocated correctly. For example, should a number range show as free, protected or otherwise "not allocated", it could mean someone is doing something naughty.
The major difference is that this tool utilises Ofcom data to lookup a communication provider for a number range, whereas HLR lookups, that are predominantly used for Mobile Phone number validation, actually query the mobile networks, usually by interrogating them via ISDN or an SS7 link. HLR Lookups cost money and do live data lookups, whereas getCP uses published data.
Absolutely not. getCP is run as "donationware" for the most part, meaning that if you like it, or find use for it, you can make a donation, but it is absolutely optional.
To give a little bit of enticement, and to some extent say thanks for the donation, we offer certain additional features as part of the donation. Persons that donate regularly, or subscribe to a donation plan, get more of these features.
This is not to say however that you must make a donation to open these features, please feel free to drop me a line, stating your use case and a reason for any additional features you wish to have added to your account, and I will certainly see what I can do
For the technical amongst you, getCP uses a mixture of different things to achieve it's purpose:
…so we use a hybrid set of things. Works well, especially given the files from Ofcom are Excel spreadsheets.
OK, forgive me as this is going to be a long one as there are a few things I want to mention here, those that are of the "TLDR" frame of mind, Your data is secure and we collect as little as possible.
When you login to getCP, you do so via a 3rd-party AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) provider, Auth0. These guys are great, and know their s**t. The getCP data stores only collect your email address, forename and surname, the latter 2 only being collected if they're available from your login provider. They're not imperative to the functionality of getCP. This data is stored in an SSO (Single Sign-On) correlation table, so that we can ensure, when we assign you getCP API Keys, we know whose they are.
Traditionally, getCP never stored the data that you looked up, it merely noted that a particular number range had been looked up, then added 1 to the statistics. In order to provide a better user experience, we now store this data with the lookup that you did, along with the correlated range, communication provider and status of the number. This data is viewable by you and you only. The developer of getCP, Yan, works in the telecoms trade and knows what it's like to receive nuisance calls, and using your data for any purpose other than looking up the CP could not be further from his mind. He deals with millions of numbers a day, so has minimal interest in the ones that you provide. The only numbers that he is interested in are the ones flashing on the till when he buys a pint of ale.
When a getCP account is left in it's standard state, and no personalisation is done, every 14 days, automated jobs go around and 'NULL' all the numbers for jobs 14 days or older, however still preserving the range, CP and status data. When this happens, and you go to view you lookups, you will notice that the 'Number' column shows 'REDACTED'. Once this has happened, the data is irretrievably deleted. You can increase this time period if you wish from the "My Account" section when logged in. It can be changed to 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or indefinitely. You can also chose to redact the data immediately from within the lookup itself.
Please note however, regardless of wether you select for the data to be maintained indefinitely, ALL LOOKUP DATA that is 12 months old is deleted in it's entirety. This is not just for a data retention and protection perspective, but due to server storage constraints.