Overview
A phone number is the cheapest identity signal most onboarding flows already collect, and the one most teams under-use. Telesign turns it into evidence: who the subscriber is, how long they have held the number, whether the SIM was recently swapped, whether the number has been ported, and whether it has surfaced in a recent data breach.
Telesign is part of Proximus Global, alongside BICS and Route Mobile. Proximus Global reports reaching over 5 billion subscribers, securing more than 180 billion transactions annually, and connecting 1,000+ destinations. Telesign publishes coverage across 230 countries and territories, more than 5 billion unique phone numbers, and 2,200 digital identity signals, delivered over 120+ points of presence and 700+ direct-to-carrier routes.
Three products matter for onboarding. Verify sends a one-time passcode over SMS or voice using direct-to-carrier routes with waterfall fallback. PhoneID returns subscriber and risk attributes against a number. Intelligence combines those signals with phone number velocity and traffic patterns to return a risk score, reason codes, and an allow, flag, or block recommendation.
Inside Zenoo, Telesign runs as a verification and risk step within an orchestrated flow, so you can score a number, decide on it, and escalate to a document or biometric check only when the signal warrants it.
Key strengths
✓ Carrier-sourced attributes, not guesswork. PhoneID returns subscriber status including account activation date, prepaid or postpaid, tenure, and last status change, drawn from carrier subscriber data rather than inferred from the number range.
✓ SIM swap and porting detection. Telesign reports whether a SIM has been swapped and rates how likely it is that the swap was fraudulent on a scale of 1 to 4. It also returns current porting status and 90 days of porting history, which is the signal that tells you an SMS passcode may no longer reach the right person.
✓ Breach exposure on the number itself. At sign-up or sign-in, Telesign can confirm whether the phone number and associated personal information appeared in a recent data breach, so a compromised identity is caught before the account exists.
✓ Contact match scoring. Submit a name and address alongside the number and Telesign returns a 0 to 100 match score against carrier subscriber records, which gives you a graded signal to route on rather than a binary pass or fail.
✓ Delivery engineered for conversion. Direct-to-carrier routes with a waterfall across multiple paths, smart message splitting that avoids breaking URLs, phone number cleansing, and answering machine detection so voice passcodes are not left on a machine.
✓ Fraud protection on the delivery layer. Automated traffic monitoring watches for suspicious patterns to protect against International Revenue Share Fraud, where attackers pump OTP traffic to premium numbers at your cost.
✓ Age verification without a document. Telesign can confirm from the number whether a user is over 18, which handles a common compliance requirement without pushing every applicant into a full document check.
Best for
High volume consumer onboarding where a document check on everyone is too costly
Teams needing a cheap first-pass risk signal before escalating
Account recovery and step-up authentication
Detecting SIM swap before trusting an SMS passcode
Blocking bulk and bot account creation at sign-up
Global flows that need one verification route across many markets
What you can build
Score: run PhoneID and Intelligence on the number at sign-up to get a risk score, reason codes, and an allow, flag, or block recommendation before any spend on heavier checks
Verify: send a one-time passcode over SMS or voice to confirm the applicant controls the number, with waterfall routing if the first path fails
Escalate: pass a flagged result into Zenoo rules to trigger document capture or biometric liveness, so the expensive check runs only on the cases that need it
Protect: check SIM swap and porting status before an account recovery or a high value transaction, and route to a stronger factor when the trust anchor has moved
Considerations
Honest notes on the trade-offs, each with a way to cover the gap inside a Zenoo flow.
Coverage depth varies by API and by country. Telesign's own datasheet footnotes that data coverage by country varies by API, so a 230 country figure describes reach and not equal attribute depth everywhere. In Zenoo: test the specific attributes you depend on in your actual markets, and set fallback routing so a thin response falls through to another provider instead of failing the applicant.
Name and address data is US and Brazil only. The Contact attribute that returns subscriber name and address is documented as available in the US and Brazil. Elsewhere you get the number-based attributes but not the contact record. In Zenoo: source name and address from a KYC or KYB provider in the same flow for other markets, rather than assuming Telesign fills that field globally.
Consent is your obligation, not the vendor's. Telesign notes that explicit consent may be required depending on which data attributes you request, and should be collected using a separate checked box. Under UK and EU data protection rules that is your compliance exposure. In Zenoo: build the consent capture into the journey and write it to the audit trail alongside the check, so you can evidence the lawful basis for every attribute you pulled.
A phone signal is not an identity. Verifying control of a number proves possession of a device, not who the person is, and it will not satisfy a KYC obligation on its own. In Zenoo: treat Telesign as the cheap first gate and chain document verification, biometrics, and AML screening behind it for regulated onboarding.
SMS passcodes are the weakest strong factor. SMS one-time passcodes remain vulnerable to SIM swap, phishing, and interception, which is precisely why Telesign sells SIM swap detection alongside them. In Zenoo: pair Verify with a PhoneID SIM swap check on the same flow so you know whether to trust the passcode you just sent.
Figures are vendor-reported. The 230 countries, 5 billion phone numbers, and 2,200 identity signals come from Telesign and Proximus Global product material rather than independent audit, and the group-level subscriber and transaction figures describe Proximus Global as a whole. In Zenoo: run a sample of your own traffic through a live flow and read the real match and delivery rates before you commit volume.
Pricing signals
Telesign does not publish list pricing for Verify, PhoneID, or Intelligence. Pricing is quoted per deal and normally varies by volume, by destination country, and by which data attributes you request, since carrier data costs differ sharply by market. Treat any headline rate as indicative until you have priced your own country mix.
How it works with Zenoo
Whatever the gaps, orchestration covers them
Configure Telesign in no-code Studio, then add fallback and waterfall logic so onboarding stays live. One contract, one integration, one audit trail across every provider.
→ AI-built connector, ready in about a day
→Fallback to a second provider on failure
→One contract, one invoice
→Unified audit trail across vendors
Pairs well with
Chain these into the same Zenoo flow so one journey covers every check.
Alternatives
ProveTwilio VerifyVonageSinchBoku Identity
Frequently asked questions
How does Telesign work with Zenoo?
Activate it from your Zenoo account and our AI builds the connector in about a day. You then get fallback routing, one contract, and a unified audit trail across every provider in the flow. You decide where Telesign sits in the journey using no-code Zenoo Studio.
What is the difference between Verify, PhoneID, and Intelligence?
Verify sends a one-time passcode over SMS or voice to confirm the user controls the number. PhoneID returns attributes about the number and its subscriber, including SIM swap, porting, tenure, and breach exposure. Intelligence combines those signals with phone number velocity and traffic patterns to return a risk score, reason codes, and an allow, flag, or block recommendation. Most flows use PhoneID or Intelligence to decide whether Verify is even needed.
What attributes does PhoneID return?
Telesign documents subscriber status, number deactivation, contact data, contact match scored 0 to 100, SIM swap with a 1 to 4 fraud likelihood rating, porting status, 90 days of porting history, age verification for over 18, live reachability, breached data, and call forwarding status. Which of these are available depends on the market, and contact name and address are documented for the US and Brazil only.
Can Telesign satisfy our KYC requirement on its own?
No. Confirming control of a phone number evidences possession of a device, not identity, and it will not meet a regulated KYC obligation by itself. The usual pattern in Zenoo is to run Telesign first as a cheap filter, then chain document verification, biometrics, and AML screening behind it for the applicants who pass.
Which markets does it cover?
Telesign publishes coverage across 230 countries and territories, over 5 billion unique phone numbers, and 2,200 digital identity signals, delivered over 120+ points of presence and 700+ direct-to-carrier routes. Its own material notes that coverage by country varies by API, so attribute depth is not uniform. Testing your actual country mix is the only reliable way to size it.
Does it help with SIM swap fraud?
Yes, and this is one of the stronger reasons to use it. PhoneID reports whether a SIM has been swapped and rates how likely the swap was fraudulent on a 1 to 4 scale, and returns porting status and history. In Zenoo you can gate account recovery or a high value payment on that check, and route to a stronger factor when the number's trust anchor has recently moved.
Who owns Telesign?
Telesign is part of Proximus Global, which combines Telesign, BICS, and Route Mobile. Group-level figures such as over 5 billion subscribers and more than 180 billion transactions annually describe Proximus Global as a whole rather than Telesign's products individually.
How long does it take to go live?
Our AI builds the connector for your workspace in about a day, and you configure the surrounding flow yourself in Zenoo Studio. Going direct to any verification vendor means a separate contract, a separate integration, and a separate audit trail.
