United States Phone Number Validator & Carrier Lookup
The hard part of a US number isn't the format — it's telling a real mobile from a VOIP or landline. Roughly one in seven US numbers is VOIP (Google Voice, TextNow and burner apps riding on wholesalers like Bandwidth and Onvoy), and they look like mobiles to a naive check. Veriphone reads the NANPA numbering data to return the carrier and the true line type — mobile, landline or VOIP — across Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and the rest.
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United States phone number format
United States numbers carry the +1 country code with a national trunk prefix of 1, dropped in E.164 format. Mobile and fixed-line ranges are distinguished by their leading digits and returned as a line_type you can filter on.
Major United States carriers
Carriers are assigned at the exchange (NPA-NXX) level in the NANPA (North American Numbering Plan Administrator) numbering data, not by a simple prefix — Veriphone returns the carrier a number was allocated to, together with line type.
Mobile, landline, or VOIP
Line type is where US numbers get tricky. A large share are VOIP rather than a true mobile or landline — hosted by CPaaS wholesalers such as Bandwidth, Onvoy and Inteliquent and used by apps like Google Voice, TextNow and Hushed. They pass a format check and often look like mobiles, so they slip past naive validation. Veriphone classifies each number as mobile, landline or VOIP from the regulator's allocation data plus wholesale-carrier overrides — the signal you want for SMS deliverability and fraud screening.
Common VOIP and CPaaS providers Veriphone flags: Onvoy, Bandwidth.com, Fractel, Comcast, Sinch (Inteliquent).
United States area codes by metro
Numbers carry a three-digit area code (NPA). Many metros are served by several overlaid codes, so the area code marks a region, not a carrier — the line type tells you whether a number is a mobile.
Questions about United States number validation
How do I tell a US mobile from a VOIP number?
Check the line_type field, not the area code. VOIP numbers (Google Voice, TextNow, burner apps) are hosted on wholesalers like Bandwidth and Onvoy and pass as valid mobiles to a format check. Veriphone returns mobile, landline or VOIP — the distinction that matters for SMS deliverability and fraud screening.
Why do US numbers need all 10 digits even for a local call?
Most of the country now uses 10-digit dialling because area codes are overlaid (several codes cover the same region). Always store and validate the full 10-digit number with its area code; a 7-digit local number is ambiguous.
Does the area code tell me the carrier?
No. Carriers are assigned at the exchange (NPA-NXX) level, and since 2003 numbers can be ported between carriers while keeping their digits. A Standard lookup returns the original allocation; use mode=current for the carrier now serving a ported number.
What about 800 and 888 toll-free numbers?
Toll-free numbers (800, 888, 877, 866, and so on) are non-geographic and are not tied to an area code or a single carrier — they are managed through a shared registry, so treat them separately from geographic numbers.
Do I keep the leading 1?
The 1 is the NANP trunk digit and country code. In E.164 the number is +1 followed by the 10 digits, so a number written 1-212-555-0123 becomes +1 212 555 0123 — don't add a second 1.
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