International premium rate service

International premium rate service (IPRS) refers to internationally available telephone-based premium services. It is analogous to "900" or "976" numbers in North America, which always incur a recipient-defined charge in excess of regular call charges. Internationally, this service has been allocated country code +979. IPRS numbers are known as UIPRNs.

The ITU recommendation for IPRS defines four charge categories, across which the +979 numbering space is divided:

Range Charge band Designation
+979 1 1 "High"
+979 3 2 "Medium"
+979 5 3 "Low"
+979 9 Special "Special"

UIPRNs are only available to premium service providers who will provide their service to more than one country.

The format of the numbers will be 979 a bcdefghi, where the a digit, 1, 3, 5 or 9, will indicate the charging band, and the remaining digits will be the IPRS subscriber's number. 1, 3 and 5 indicate charge bands 1, 2 and 3, respectively, while 9 will indicate a special charge band.

The service is not yet known to be active[citation needed]. Once it is activated, it may not be available from every country[citation needed], even though there is minimal or no cost to the receiving customer, as interchange rates would need to be negotiated for countries to allow origination of calls.

Usage

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IPRS phone numbers are used by the German malware manufacturer FinFisher for their Android Trojans.[1]

References

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  1. ^ 36C3 - Finfisher verklagen, 29 December 2019, archived from the original on 2021-12-14, retrieved 2019-12-31
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