About Bind
Bind Technologies is an omnichannel messaging platform based in Pula, Croatia. It carries SMS, RCS, WhatsApp Business, Viber and voice traffic. Its customers work in retail, logistics and finance. Most of its SMS goes to networks across Europe and MENA.
When Ufone Switched Off HLR
Bind screened Ufone numbers with HLR lookups until Ufone switched off traditional HLR in 2026. With no register to query, a number goes out unscreened. A message sent to a number no longer in use is paid for and never delivered.
Bind still held its last HLR results, from late May 2026. It used them to test whether eHLR reaches the same verdicts. It took 899 numbers from three HLR groups and ran each one through eHLR.
The three groups, as HLR reported them:
- —Unknown Subscriber. The network has no subscriber on the number.
- —Absent Subscriber. The number exists, but the handset was off or out of coverage.
- —Available. The number was reachable when HLR was queried.
What Runs on Each Number
eHLR. It combines telecom network signals with digital footprint data. It returns valid, invalid or unknown for each mobile number. It does not query operator HLR. That is why it still returns a verdict on Ufone.
Some numbers have no network signal but are well formed under E.164. eHLR returns unknown for those, not invalid. On Ufone, with HLR switched off, that is the verdict a dead number gets.
Bind now runs about 85,000 eHLR requests a day on Ufone numbers.
Bind sends numbers one at a time over the JSON-RPC API. Numbers that come back unknown are not billed. They stay separable from the rest of the file.
Results
| HLR result in May | Numbers tested | eHLR valid | eHLR unknown | Agreement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown Subscriber | 299 | 25 | 274 | 91.6% returned unknown |
| Absent Subscriber | 300 | 115 | 185 | Mixed |
| Available | 300 | 247 | 53 | 82.3% returned valid |
Unknown Subscriber. eHLR returned unknown on 274 of 299 numbers the network had no subscriber for. It marked 25 of them valid. Ufone has no HLR signal left, so a well-formed dead number comes back unknown. Bind holds it back.
Absent Subscriber. The split was 115 valid to 185 unknown. Absent is a temporary state, so a mixed result is what the sample should produce. Some of those handsets may be back on the network since May.
Available. eHLR confirmed 247 of 300 as valid. The other 53 came back unknown. The sample predates the switch-off, so some may have gone absent since. Only fresh HLR data could settle that, and Ufone no longer returns it.
In Bind's Words
When Ufone switched off traditional HLR, we needed another way to screen numbers. Tested against our last HLR data, eHLR's results were very strong. ScoreMachine returned unknown for 91.6% of numbers that previously had Unknown Subscriber HLR responses, which is highly satisfactory.