From January 1, 2023, telephone numbers starting with 06 and 07 will be reserved for individuals. A measure imposed by Arcep to limit unwanted calls from canvassers and scammers.

From January 1, 2023, telephone numbers starting with 06 and 07 will be reserved for individuals. A measure imposed by Arcep to limit unwanted calls from canvassers and scammers.

We all know the inconveniences of cold calling. A customer service that calls every day, an organization that contacts you after you have used an insurance comparator, but also subscriptions to fake CPF training (Personal Training Account) and scams that ask you to renew your card vital by SMS… All these solicitations pollute our daily life and can prove to be frankly painful in the long run. Paradoxically, exchanges with unknown numbers – whether SMS or calls – are increasingly essential. Indeed, uses have changed, in particular with the explosion of e-commerce – and therefore deliveries or withdrawals in Point Relay –, the democratization of medical consultations by video – which require reminder or confirmation SMS – and applications to “order” a VTC driver – and who must therefore let you know when he has arrived. This is why many more platforms than before are using ephemeral numbers to contact the user.

In order to limit unwanted calls, the Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority (theArcep) has updated its national numbering plan – started in 2018 – as announced in its press release of September 5, 2022. From 1^er January 2023, telephone numbers starting with 06 and 07 will be exclusively reserved for individuals and can no longer be used by businesses.

A measure to combat unwanted calls and cold calling

Acrep announced on Monday in a press release that “the Authority reserves the use of mobile numbers in 06 and 07 – durably attached to a user in the minds of all – exclusively for interpersonal communications services.” Concretely, “non-interpersonal” communications – either telephone platforms or companies that want to contact an individual – will have to use a number starting with 09 – which was until now a national number for landline telephone not attached to a geographical area – or an extended length mobile number. Operators will have to associate a voice call and message service with these numbers, provided that they have been verified by the telecom operator. Arcep explains that the numbers in 09 “could for example be used to establish conversations by message between a brand and its customer, or for very short-term use of telephone numbers for certain situations of ephemeral contact via a platform (parcel deliverers, VTC drivers, etc.).”

The purpose of this measure is to make up for a shortage of telephone numbers in 06 and 07 since, most of the time, the numbers for canvassing and callbacks are only used once. This is why, from 1^er July 2023, Arcep will assign new numbers in increments of 1,000 – compared to 10,000 previously – which must be used for at least 72 hours. But, above all, this decision aims to “limit the nuisances suffered by users” receiving unwanted calls or messages and other untimely commercial solicitations. If we doubt that this measure is enough to reduce scams – which are constantly renewed with increasingly ingenious methods –, it still offers a little more visibility as to the person calling. Seeing a number in 09 displayed, the user is then on his guard not to be fooled and is not even obliged to pick up for fear of missing an important call.