Country compliance: the five-state model
Every destination country resolves to one of five compliance states before any call is placed. The state determines whether a number can be searched, bought, and used in that country, plus any operating constraints on how calls are made. The state is always evaluated against the country's current rules, so a country can move between states as regulations or our coverage change.
- Green: fully permitted, self-serve. Numbers can be searched, bought, and used with no extra paperwork.
- Yellow: permitted, with a mandatory operating constraint that is applied automatically when the call is placed (for example a caller-ID rule).
- Orange: permitted only after a regulatory submission is approved. You can start the process in-app, but a number can't be bought or used until it clears.
- Red: restricted. Not self-serve; a number has to be requested and enabled by the Callstrike team. Off by default.
- Black: prohibited. Never offered, ordered, or dialed.
What each state controls
The state gates three separate things: searching for a number, buying it, and placing calls.
| Action | Green | Yellow | Orange | Red | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search for available numbers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Request only | No |
| Buy / rent a number | Yes | Yes | Only after clearance | Request only | No |
| Place calls (dispatch) | Yes | Yes, with the constraint | Yes, once cleared | No | No |
Two gates therefore protect you: buying is blocked until a country is cleared, and dispatch is blocked for any destination that isn't in a permitted state, so a campaign can never dial a country it shouldn't.
Where countries sit today
Compliance states change over time, and the app always shows the live state per country. As a snapshot of the model:
- Green: the United States.
- Orange (needs an approved regulatory submission): the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy.
- Red (request through Callstrike): Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, and most of the rest of Europe, plus a range of destinations across Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and the Middle East and Africa.
Anything not yet ratified defaults to Red as a fail-safe, so a country you don't see offered self-serve is restricted until it's explicitly enabled, never silently dialable.
Country specifics worth knowing
- France: standard French local, mobile, and national numbers legally prohibit automated outbound calling. Only a Verified Polyvalent Number (NPV) may be used for it, so France is clearance-gated and standard French number types are not offered for outbound simulations.
- Spain: Spanish national numbers can't be resold for this use, so Spain stays request-only for now. (Other Spanish number types are unaffected in principle; they're simply not enabled self-serve yet.)
- Italy: permitted with clearance, but Italian numbers are ordered manually rather than bought instantly, and Italy enforces caller-ID (CLI) blocking at the originating carrier, so the presented caller ID has to be configured accordingly.
- Germany: an EU country that requires regulatory clearance, with automated outbound gated conservatively until that clearance is confirmed.
The EU "disintermediation" destinations (France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain) all require regulatory clearance before automated outbound calling; some are live self-serve today and the rest route through the request flow.
Regulatory submissions (bundles)
For an Orange country, you submit a regulatory bundle: your business and address details plus any supporting documents the destination requires. The bundle is submitted to, and approved by, the phone provider (Twilio or Telnyx), not by Callstrike, since it's their carrier relationship that authorizes the number. A submission is scoped to a specific country and number type, so clearance for one type in a country does not automatically cover another type there.
A submission moves through states you can watch in-app: not started, draft, pending review, in review, approved, rejected, or action required. Only once it reads approved can you buy and use a number in that country.
Operating constraints (caller ID)
Some destinations constrain how the call presents:
- Setting a caller-ID name (CNAM) requires an approved calling-identity attestation, and the name is capped at 15 characters. It is applied at the originating carrier, and downstream display on the recipient's handset isn't guaranteed.
- Italy requires the presented caller ID to be configured for its originating- carrier CLI blocking, as noted above.
Gotchas & limitations
- A campaign can build fine and still block at dispatch. Country compliance is enforced when the campaign is scheduled, not when you create it. You can assemble a campaign aimed at a country you can't yet dial; it will be gated at launch until the country is cleared and a usable number exists. Plan clearance ahead of the launch date.
- Clearance is required before you can even rent the number. In an Orange country the buy step is blocked until your submission is approved, with an in-app message telling you whether a submission is required, pending, or was rejected and needs re-submitting.
- Number availability depends on the state. Search returns nothing for Red and Black countries, and some cleared countries (Italy) have no instant inventory at all because numbers there are ordered manually, so the clearance wizard can appear even where self-serve search is empty.
- A restricted number type is blocked even in a permitted country. Where a specific number type is prohibited for automated outbound (France's standard types, Germany's conservative gating), that type can't be bought even though the country itself is otherwise permitted; you're routed to the request flow instead.
- States change. The matrix is maintained as regulations and coverage evolve (the UK and Italy, for example, have moved between states), and the app always reflects the current state, so re-check a country before a campaign rather than relying on what it was last quarter.