The Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) is an industry-wide database of all public telephone numbers which facilitates the provision of information for emergency services, law enforcement, directory assistance and the publication and maintenance of public number directories. The IPND is a database containing all public telephone numbers, listed and unlisted, and associated information such as the customer’s name and service address and the name of the service provider providing the carriage service.
If as a supplier of VoIP services you provide a telephone number to a customer for their service, then you are required to provide the IPND Manager with address details for your customer.
The IPND is managed by Telstra as part of its carrier licence conditions.
There are a range of codes and regulatory instruments which govern the operation of the IPND. These include Communications Alliance’s code ACIF C555:2008 Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) which sets out rights and obligations of data providers, data users and the IPND Manager regarding the access, input, use, disclosure and storage of public number customer data in the IPND. The guideline ACIF G619:2007 IPND Data assists in ensuring the accurate capture and entry of data into the IPND to satisfy the needs of all Data Users, particularly emergency service organisations.
In particular VoIP providers should be aware of the need to highlight the possibility that their customer has the ability to move their service, or that the IPND address information is not guaranteed to accurately identify the caller’s location for emergency call purposes. In these cases the Alternate Address Flag on the customer’s IPND record must be set to ‘True’, indicating that the service may not be located at the customer’s service address. The ACMA manages carriage service provider compliance with these requirements through periodic audits and investigations.
For further information on the IPND see:
- ACMA’s main IPND page
- Telstra’s IPND manager’s page (includes details on how to become an IPND data provider)
- Communications Alliance Code C555:2008 and Guideline G619:2007
- VoIP compliance and monitoring
