Leasing of Global Titles has been recognised as a risk by the UK’s official National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and is acknowledged within the telecoms sector. But industry-led efforts to address these issues have not been effective, the UK regulator Ofcom says, so it has banned the leasing of Global Titles with immediate effect.
Ofcom’s Group Director for Networks and Communications, Natalie Black, said: “We are taking world-leading action to tackle the threat posed by criminals gaining access to mobile networks. Leased Global Titles are one of the most significant and persistent sources of malicious signalling. Our ban will help prevent them falling into the wrong hands – protecting mobile users and our critical telecoms infrastructure in the process.”
NCSC Chief Technical Officer, Ollie Whitehouse, said: “Today’s announcement marks an important step in the support of our mission to make the UK the safest place to live and work online. This technique, which is actively used by unregulated commercial companies, poses privacy and security risks to everyday users, and we urge our international partners to follow suit in addressing it.
“As the UK’s National Technical Authority for cyber security, we also congratulate Ofcom on their continued global leadership in this critical area.”
The ban on entering new leasing arrangements is effective immediately. For leasing that is already in place, the ban will come into force on April 22, 2026. This will give legitimate businesses who lease Global Titles from mobile networks time for alternatives, Ofcom says. The watchdog has also published guidance for telecoms operators on preventing misuse of Global Titles.
About Global Titles
They’re used by mobile networks to send and receive signalling messages, helping to make sure a call or SMS gets to the intended recipient. They are used quietly in the background of the billions of calls and texts made worldwide and are never seen by senders or receivers of a call or message. These Global Titles are sometimes leased out by mobile networks; criminals can use Global Titles to intercept and divert calls and messages, and get their hands on information held by mobile networks. This could, for example, enable them to intercept security codes sent by banks to a customer via SMS message. In extreme cases they can be exploited by criminals and other harmful actors to track the physical location of individuals, anywhere. As criminals lease rather than own these numbers, they can hide their identities.
