# OPS-137 — Do not burn numbers and replace them

> Numbers must not be cycled — used until deliverability degrades and then discarded, or freshly provisioned to escape a suspension.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-137
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `number provisioning and retirement pattern`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Falls due after approval, once you are live and sending
- **How it is detected:** Not knowable before submission — reported with its deadline
- **Fix type:** Hard stop — not remediable, resubmission will not help
- **Required by:** T-Mobile, Vonage, Plivo, Telnyx
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-137/

## Why this rule exists

A number whose delivery is falling is telling you something about the traffic, and replacing it discards the signal rather than the cause. Carriers treat the pattern as deliberate because it is the standard playbook of senders who intend to keep sending regardless — and provisioning a new number while a suspension is open escalates from a campaign problem to an account one.

## How to fix it

Treat degrading delivery as a content or consent problem and fix that. Keep the number: recovering its reputation is slow but possible, and a fresh number inherits the same traffic and degrades the same way.

## Check this yourself

**What has your number churn been over the last quarter — how many numbers were retired and replaced?**

1. Pull the provisioning history and count retirements. A pattern nobody planned, emerging from individually reasonable decisions, is the usual finding.
2. For each retirement, ask what prompted it. Falling delivery is a content or consent signal, not a number fault.
3. Never provision a fresh number while a suspension is open — that escalates a campaign problem to an account one.

*What wrong looks like:* The number is discarded and the traffic that degraded it is not, so the replacement inherits the same content and degrades the same way. Carriers read the pattern as the standard playbook of senders who intend to keep sending regardless.

## Notes

Visible only in provisioning history over time. What the user has to look at is their own number churn over the last quarter — a pattern nobody planned but that has emerged from individual reasonable decisions is the usual finding.