HLR Lookup Tool & Home Location Register Service
HLR lookups use a more advanced phone number validation technique, which directly query a mobile carrier network to determine the subscriber status. This real-time carrier lookup identifies if the number is currently assigned to a subscriber and if the phone number is reachable by text message (SMS) or phone call. Home location register (HLR) lookups can quickly validate a phone number and ensure a healthy contactability rate for active phone numbers.
IPQS partners with leading telecom providers worldwide to access a carrier's home location register database which contains up to date subscriber data for all phone numbers worldwide. This direct relationships with mobile network operators provides greater phone validation accuracy through a real-time HLR lookup that enables higher hit rates for verifying phone number active line status.
HLR Lookup API
Verify phone numbers with an on-demand HLR request using the IPQS HLR lookup API — with easy integration into any mobile app, web application, or software. This feature allows for a real-time query against our HLR database, which is always updating. HLR lookups can also be performed directly in our user dashboard using the live HLR checker or by uploading a contact list through our CSV bulk HLR lookup tool.
Learn about IPQS Phone ValidationWhat Is an HLR Lookup?
Most services validate phone numbers by checking syntax, area code, number length, dialing code, and similar metrics to identify invalid numbers. HLR lookups work by querying a number against a mobile network's subscriber database to access MSIDN, subscriber name, line status, and similar metrics. This data can only be provided by a mobile operator. An HLR lookup service goes beyond standard phone validation by using data from the HLR request to determine if the phone number is disconnected, invalid, or unassigned to an active subscriber.
HLR Lookup Service Benefits
An HLR service is the perfect solution to improve intelligence around a phone number. Here's a few benefits that come along with HLR checks:
- An HLR checker can also identify if a number is truly a mobile phone number capable of receiving SMS text messages. This can be useful for data cleansing contact lists to reduce SMS messaging costs due to unreachable phone numbers.
- Use HLR lookups to detect fraudulent phone numbers associated with SIM swap fraud, virtual disposable phone numbers, or simply any number that has recently exhibited fraudulent activity.
- Detect invalid phone numbers which are unreachable, saving your sales team or call center precious time to focus on the highest quality leads.
- Gain insight to a number's owner and the identity behind the subscriber using our reverse phone number lookup service.
- Access the most up to date mobile operator data to retrieve the phone number service provider carrier details, even when the line has been ported to a new mobile network.
- Easy setup with a real time HLR lookup API service that integrates directly into registration, lead form capture, marketing automation, or any landing page.
Phone Number Active Line Status
Traditional HLR lookups can only identify subscriber information for mobile numbers — however IPQualityScore's active line check service can even validate landlines and VoIP numbers (Voice over Internet Protocol). Our relationships with mobile network operators provides exclusive access to subscriber databases such as portability data, customer identity, and even HLR location signals and roaming status through a visitor location register (VLR) check. This enhanced line check provides the most accurate data for detecting inactive mobile phone numbers through mobile number validation & landline/VoIP signals.
How to Use the HLR Lookup Service?
The HLR service can be queried by uploading a contact or customer list through our user dashboard which supports bulk HLR lookups. This method is useful for data cleansing marketing lists and customer data. The HLR lookup API is best used during account screening for registrations, payments, and similar actions where a real-time response can be beneficial to business logic. HLR can also be used for fraud detection and user verification purposes, since having a valid mobile phone number is a great quality indicator.
How to Use the HLR Lookup API?
The IPQS HLR lookup API can be accessed as a subset of our phone number validation API, which provides 25+ data points through a real time application programming interface (API) request that searches our HLR database maintained by the mobile network operator. Simply pass a phone number in E.164 format to initiate the request. Depending on your HLR service tier, your account can process thousands of requests per second to lookup an HLR request for any phone number worldwide. The HLR API documentation includes example code for easy integration into any coding language. Additional data points are available through this method, such as Mobile Network Code (MNC) and Mobile Country Code (MCC) which are necessary for routing SMS through mobile networks.
