Ofcom’s last Global Title lease extension ended on 22 October

Ofcom’s Last Borrowed Signalling Numbers Have Reached Checkout

Why it matters

The two special migration lanes for leased Global Titles closed on 22 October. A mobile signalling address now needs a holder with the right to lend it under the narrow rule, not another extension of the clock.

Daniel Kade25 October 2026 at 00:06 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 25 October 2026

The last Ofcom transition period for two existing Global Title leasing paths ended on 22 October.

Summary

Ofcom’s extended transition for two existing Global Title leasing uses—the MVNO and in-vehicle migration journeys—reached its rulebook deadline on 22 October 2026.
The UK Numbering Plan restricts who may create or use a Global Title derived from an allocated number, and who may authorise another party to use it. Same-group and dedicated-service arrangements remain written exceptions.

A bank sends a code to your phone. The invisible traffic that helps deliver it moves through mobile signalling addresses called Global Titles. Some of those addresses were borrowed from the holder of a UK telephone number. Ofcom’s numbering rule B3.8.3 gave the last two classes of old leases a return date: 22 October 2026. That date has passed.

The address is built from a telephone number. Networks use it to find users and exchange service messages. Ofcom’s 2025 decision targeted the risk that a third party with a leased or sub-allocated address could gain access to signalling functions and abuse them to intercept messages or track users.

Two jobs received extra time

Ofcom barred new third-party leases and new Global Titles from sub-allocated numbers in April 2025. Existing arrangements generally had until 22 April 2026. Two complicated moves earned six additional months. One involved an MVNO moving service to another provider’s core network. The other involved an MVNO serving devices built into vehicles while preparing its own Global Titles and core equipment. The formal decision and its Schedule 1 put both in the 22 October slot.

The number holder gets the key back

Rule B3.8.1 ties a Global Title to the person who received the telephone number from Ofcom. Rule B3.8.2 limits that holder’s power to let somebody else use it. A company in the same group may qualify. So may a supplier using the address exclusively to serve the holder. The migration allowance applied to the two defined paths and expired with their legacy authorisations.

The regulatory wager is plain. A number holder can no longer rent away a route into signalling and point to a transition timetable indefinitely. Ofcom’s public decision does not count completed migrations. The next useful record is a post-deadline account of how affected authorisations changed and which, if any, prompted enforcement.