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Calling Limitations to China Using 8x8 Services

Updated: 08/20/2024

Symptom

Calls to China are not successful.

Applies To

  • 8x8 Work
  • 8x8 Contact Center
  • Fuze

Resolution

To address SPAM (Unwanted calls), Chinese regulators are enforcing more restrictions on calls, especially calls originating from outside of China. Not all calls will be blocked, just calls that the Chinese regulators judge to be unwanted. Our data suggests that calls from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are more likely to be blocked.
The Chinese regulators do not publish any official rules or guidance, but our carrier partners have advised us based on events they have encountered so far. Even with the recommendations detailed in this article, calls to China are not guaranteed to work every time. All calls are delivered on a best effort basis. The response of Chinese regulators can be variable; these guidelines will change over time. The 8x8 carrier team will continue to work with our underlying carriers to keep this article up-to-date.

Guidelines

Chinese regulators are strictly monitoring calls. To increase the chances of successful calls, consider these guidelines:
  • No calls with a duration shorter than three minutes. Strict spam monitoring and general restrictions on VoIP in China means that numbers involved in any calls under three minutes have a high probability of being blocked. Try to ensure an average duration of three minutes or more.
  • No unsolicited marketing calls.
  • No high volume of repeated calls from the same Origination (From) Number within a rolling hour.
  • No calls allowed from invalid, modified, spoofed, or restricted origination (From) Numbers.
  • Chinese numbers can only be called from an international, non-Chinese number. Any inbound calls with a Chinese caller ID will fail.
  • If you have a high-volume of unanswered outbound calls, your calls will be blocked.
  • Do not make calls from modified, spoofed, or restricted origination numbers.
  • Do not use a toll-free number as they will be blocked.
Note: For the purposes of this article, the Chinese mainland does not include Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao.