​

Carrier Deactivation (Churn) Scrub: List Hygiene Against Carrier Disconnects

​

When the deactivation scrub matters

• Wrong-recipient delivery. Once a carrier deactivates a number, it can be reassigned to a new subscriber. Messaging it after the disconnect risks delivering marketing texts or even one-time codes to a stranger — a 47 U.S.C. § 227 (TCPA) exposure for US traffic, and reputational exposure everywhere.
• Dead-number burn. Every send to a disconnected number still consumes A2P throughput and counts against your sender reputation with the carrier.

• The DNC scrub answers “did the person ask to stop?” — federal, state, TCR, and international registries plus your own suppression layer.
• The RND check answers the TCPA safe-harbor question “was this number permanently disconnected after my consent date?” — a per-number legal gate against reassignment.

​

Enable the tenant toggle

curl "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/deactivations/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORBIT_API_KEY"

{
  "enabled": true,
  "feed_synced": true
}

curl -X PUT "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/deactivations/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORBIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "enabled": true }'

​

Check a single number

curl "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/deactivations/check?phone=%2B14155550101&last_seen=2026-07-01" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORBIT_API_KEY"

{
  "status": "deactivated",
  "should_scrub": true,
  "last_deactivation_date": "2026-08-14",
  "last_seen_date": "2026-07-01",
  "feed_synced": true,
  "reason": "The subscriber's carrier deactivated this number; scrub it from the list to avoid messaging a reassigned or dead number."
}

• status — one of deactivated (carrier churn on record — scrub it), active (no relevant deactivation on record — keep it), or no_data (no feed synced — no verdict can be asserted; keep, at your own risk).
• should_scrub — true only when status is deactivated. A hygiene gate never scrubs a number the feed has not positively flagged.
• last_deactivation_date — the most-recent carrier deactivation on record for the number, or null when there is none.
• last_seen_date — the filter date you supplied, echoed back.
• feed_synced — false until a carrier snapshot is loaded. While false, every verdict is no_data.
• reason — a human-readable explanation, suitable for audit review.

​

Scrub a batch before a campaign

curl -X POST "https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/deactivations/scrub" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORBIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "last_seen": "2026-07-01",
    "numbers": [
      { "phone": "+14155550101" },
      { "phone": "+12125550102", "last_seen": "2026-01-15" }
    ]
  }'

{
  "feed_synced": true,
  "checked": 2,
  "scrub_count": 1,
  "kept_count": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "phone": "+14155550101",
      "status": "deactivated",
      "should_scrub": true,
      "last_deactivation_date": "2026-08-14",
      "last_seen_date": "2026-07-01",
      "reason": "The subscriber's carrier deactivated this number; scrub it from the list..."
    },
    {
      "phone": "+12125550102",
      "status": "active",
      "should_scrub": false,
      "last_deactivation_date": "2025-11-30",
      "last_seen_date": "2026-01-15",
      "reason": "The only carrier deactivation on record predates the date you last validated this number..."
    }
  ]
}

​

How the send path enforces it

• SMS / MMS sends. Before dispatch, the message pipeline looks up your most-recent prior-express consent date for the recipient (unlike the manual endpoint, which defaults to any-record). A deactivation on or after that date refuses the send with MESSAGING_NUMBER_DEACTIVATED (HTTP 422). A deactivation that predates your consent does not block a legitimately consented send. Campaign bulk-sends route through the same send pipeline, so the guard applies there too.
• Voice / dialer. The dialer evaluates the same carrier deactivation verdict before originating a call to a NANP (+1) destination — the carrier deactivation feed today covers NANP numbers, so non-NANP destinations are skipped rather than mis-gated.
• Verify / OTP. A one-time code sent on a phone channel (SMS, MMS, voice, or flashcall) is refused with VERIFY_NUMBER_DEACTIVATED (HTTP 422) whenever any deactivation record is on file. There is no consent ledger for a login code, so the guard uses a strict disconnect-presence model — any carrier record means the code could reach a reassigned stranger, and verification must ask the user to confirm the number another way.

​

The fail-open caveat

Until a carrier deactivation snapshot is synced, every query returns no_data and clear (should_scrub: false) — for every number.

1. Treat a clear verdict as “no disconnect seen so far,” never as safe-harbor. A no_data result means the platform cannot assert the number is churned or clean — the algorithm deliberately degrades to default-keep rather than claim a clean verdict it could not back.
2. A scrub that skipped still counts as scrubbed-only-if-checkable. On the SaaS platform the feed is synced centrally; on self-hosted deployments the operator configures the carrier snapshot. Either way, weigh feed_synced before relying on a US campaign pre-flight.

​

Recover after a block

1. Drop the destination from active lists until you re-verify the number with the subscriber.
2. A send-path block clears when a new consent grant (prior express) is recorded that is dated after the carrier’s last_deactivation_date — the consent-date filter then treats the current relationship as newer than the disconnect.
3. For Verify/OTP, the block persists as long as any deactivation record is on file; confirm the number belongs to the user through another channel before re-attempting.

​

Deactivation vs. RND vs. DNC

• DNC Scrubbing — the registries-plus-suppression layer that complements the deactivation scrub.
• Send Gates — the quiet-hours / DNC / RND / deactivation send-time gates and emergency stop.
• Troubleshooting Verify OTP — diagnosing a refused verification, including carrier-deactivation blocks.
• Error Codes — the full MESSAGING_NUMBER_DEACTIVATED and VERIFY_NUMBER_DEACTIVATED reference rows.
• Your Tenant Compliance Posture — the toggle map, including the deactivation_scrub_enabled row.