Identification of the line of origin

The Regulation on the conditions for the provision of electronic communications services, universal service and the protection of users (Universal Service Regulation), approved by Royal Decree 424/2005 of 15 April, includes in its Title V certain provisions in relation to the protection of personal data in the provision of telecommunication services, which among others address the ease of identification of the line of origin.

The ease of identification of the line of origin is defined as the provision that allows the user who receives a call to obtain the information of the telephone number of the line from which that communication originates.

The number that is presented to the user who receives the call must be such that it allows identify the line of origin unless, as stated in Article 61.2 of the Universal Service Regulation, the corresponding authorisation has been obtained to be exempted from the requirements on display and limitation of the identification of the line of origin.

For its part, article 71.2 states that the operators that will provide the identification facilities of the line of origin must send to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Spanish Agency for Data Protection, prior to the provision of these facilities, a document that includes the characteristics and procedures used to ensure compliance with the provisions of this regulation on these facilities. Likewise, operators will be obliged to communicate, prior to their application, the subsequent variations of the characteristics of their offers.

Article 72 also provides that operators must offer the possibility, in the corresponding network section, for the originating user to delete, in each of them and by means of a simple and free procedure, the identification of the line of origin, as well as the possibility, insofar as they cooperate in the establishment of such communications, for any subscriber to automatically delete in all their calls the identification of their line.

In addition, article 77 establishes that operators providing publicly available telephone services with the facilities of identification of the line of origin and identification of the connected line shall eliminate the marks of suppression in origin of the identification of the line of origin, when the destination of the calls corresponds to entities providing emergency call services through the number 112 and others authorized for the care of emergency calls or those related to public security or national defense. The application of the mechanism for the elimination of suppression marks at source of the identification of the line of origin for emergency services other than those served through the number 112 must be approved, at the request of the entities providing the aforementioned emergency services or ex officio, in advance and for each particular case or type of emergency service, by resolution of the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures.

The modification of the identification of the line of origin can only be carried out in the cases expressly authorized by the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures.

In the section of Numbering Regulations you can consult the different Resolutions relating to the identification of the line of origin .

The regulatory measures aimed at preventing the impersonation of the identification of the line of origin can be consulted in the section "Measures against impersonation of identity through telephone calls and messages".