US Active TG Data Cleaning Guide: Complete steps to unify E.164 number format before uploading

In acquiring customers overseas, US active TG (active Telegram users) is the core goal of many marketing teams. However, after obtaining a list of U.S. numbers, uploading it directly to the number screening platform often results in unsatisfactory results: a large number of numbers are marked as invalid or unactivated, and the balance is wasted. The problem lies in the number format - most of these numbers come from CRM, Excel tables or data suppliers. They are mixed with spaces, brackets, dashes, and international prefixes. They are not in the standard E.164 format required by the screening number system at all.

If you want to obtain accurate US TG active data, the first step is not to filter, but to clean the format. This article teaches you step by step how to batch convert the US and North American number segments to E.164, and provides a full-process operation guide from cleaning to filtering to result application to help you improve the efficiency of acquiring US Telegram active data and avoid invalid detection and waste of balances.

Why US active TG screen numbers must use E.164 format

The core logic of the number screening platform (such as KK-DATA) is to use the number to send a hidden query to the target platform to determine whether the number is registered and active. This process relies on a standardized number format - E.164. If the number contains spaces, brackets, extra 0s, or a missing country code, the system will directly reject the number or determine it as an invalid number (unactivated), causing you to lose valuable potential users.

For example, +1 305 123 4567 and 13051234567 appear to the system as two different strings. The former with spaces will be regarded as a format error → invalid → not detected → a waste of balance. Only if it is written as +13051234567 can it successfully pass the verification. US Active TG More than 80% of the screening accuracy depends on format cleaning before uploading.

What is the standard E.164 format?

E.164 is a global telephone number format standard defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). It consists of three parts: country code + area code (network number) + local number, and must meet:

• starts with +
• The country code is 1 to 3 digits
• The total area code and local number should not exceed 15 digits (fixed to 10 digits for the United States/Canada)
• No spaces, brackets, dashes, periods or other delimiters allowed

Correct example (US number): +13051234567

• +1: United States/Canada country code
• 305: Miami area code
• 1234567: 7-digit local number

Error examples and causes:

Bad format	Source	Problem
1-305-123-4567	Common business phone numbers	Includes dashes, no plus sign
(305) 123-4567	Web form collection	Brackets + spaces + dashes
0013051234567	International long distance format	More 001, not E.164
3051234567	Missing country code	Unrecognized as a US number
+1 (305) 123-4567	Mixed formats	Remaining spaces and brackets

Core rules of E.164 format

There are only three rules, but they must be strictly enforced:

1. Only numbers and the beginning + are allowed in the entire string, and any non-numeric characters are prohibited.
2. The country code must come first and be guided by +.
3. Duplication or blank lines are prohibited, one number per line, no leading or trailing spaces.

The special characteristics of the United States/Canada country code +1

The United States and Canada share number resource allocation, and the country code is +1. The full E.164 format for US numbers is +1 + 10 digits (NPA-NXX-XXXX). There is no need to dial 0 or 1 first for local calls. If you collect 3051234567 from the form, be sure to add +1 in front; if you collect 13051234567, you need to add a + to become +13051234567.

How to uniformly clean American TG numbers into E.164 format (check list)

It’s easy to manually sanitize a single number, but with tens or even hundreds of thousands of U.S. numbers, you need a set of repeatable steps. The following is a checklist that has been verified many times. Operating in sequence can cover more than 90% of formatting problems.

Step 1 — Remove all non-numeric characters (spaces, brackets, dashes, plus signs)

If the number you have contains various separators, such as:

• (305) 123-4567
• 1-305-123-4567
• 305.123.4567

Operation method (take Excel as an example):

1. Create a new column and use the formula =SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-","") to remove dashes.
2. Nesting =SUBSTITUTE(...," ","") Remove spaces.
3. Continue to remove the brackets . - and other non-numeric characters, leaving only numbers 0-9.
4. Finally, a pure number string is obtained, such as 13051234567 or 3051234567.

If working in a text editor, you can use regular expressions: search for [^0-9] and replace it with nothing, keeping the number.

Step 2 — Confirm whether the country code + 1 is the correct prefix

After cleaning, you need to check if each number starts with 1. Because the country code for U.S. numbers is +1, the standard number has a total of 11 digits (1 + 10 digits).

• If the number length = 10 digits → add 1 → in front to become 11 digits.
• If the number length = 11 digits and the first digit is 1 → no additional digits are required.
• If the number length = 11 digits but the first digit is not 1 (rare) → it belongs to another country and should be deleted or marked.

Finally, it is unified into an 11-digit string with the country code but without + (such as 13051234567), and + will be added later.

Step 3 — Remove duplicate or blank line numbers

After format cleaning is completed, don’t forget to remove duplicates and empty lines. Duplicate numbers will cause redundant detection to waste balance; blank lines will cause the screening task to report an error.

Remove duplicates:

• Excel: Select Number Column → Data → Remove Duplicates.
• Command tool: awk '!seen[$0]++' numbers.txt or Python set.

Clear lines: Delete all blank lines (invisible characters may remain, it is recommended to use the =TRIM() function).

What else should you pay attention to before uploading to the screening platform?

After the number is cleaned into E.164 format (such as +13051234567), it can be uploaded to the KK-DATA console (https://app.kkdata.cc/）开始筛号。上传时注意：

• File format: CSV or TXT is recommended, one number per line, no header or header phone.
• Encoding: UTF-8, to avoid GBK encoding causing the + sign to become garbled characters.
• Single upper limit: A single task supports up to about 1 million items, but it is recommended that each batch be controlled to about 100,000 items to facilitate error checking midway.
• Column header naming: If you use CSV and there is a column header, make sure the column name is phone or 号码, and the platform will automatically recognize it.
• Estimated cost: Before submitting the task, the console will display the estimated cost. Please confirm it is correct before submitting.

In addition, KK-DATA provides a “global number generation” function, which can automatically generate numbers in the standard E.164 format according to the US number range (NPA-NXX). No manual cleaning is required. You can directly export CSV to enter the filter. This is a time-saving solution for doing preliminary screening of US active TG in batches.

How to use the US active TG data screening results

After the screening is completed, the console will return the following key fields (fields vary slightly on different platforms):

Field	Meaning	Application scenario
tg开通	Is the number registered with Telegram	Exclude unregistered numbers
tg活跃	Whether the number has online behavior within the specified time window (such as the past 3 days/7 days/30 days)	Screen recent active users and send targeted messages
性别	Gender (male/female) inferred based on Telegram public information	Targeted marketing, such as pushing specific products to American men
年龄	Age range inferred based on public information (for example, about 30 years old)	Product selection by age group, such as young users recommending games and middle-aged users recommending finance
tgid	Telegram internal user ID, which can be used for API operations, such as adding friends and group invitations	Import third-party tools for refined group sending

Practical Suggestions:

• If you are doing US Active TG private message promotion, it is recommended to export only the numbers where tg开通 is true and tg活跃 is within the past 7 days, which has the highest quality.
• If the budget is limited, you can screen tg开通 first, and then do a second active screening of the passed numbers to use them in layers.
• The tgid field can be used with automated scripts to implement targeted group additions, @ reminders, etc. (Telegram ToS must be followed).

Common reasons for EE.164 format error leading to screen number failure

Even if the cleaning process is correct, there are several common mistakes that can cause some numbers to be mistakenly considered invalid. The following are typical scenarios and correction methods:

Error case 1 — Missing country code +1

Original: 3051234567 (10 digits) Problem: Missing +1, the system cannot recognize it as a country code and marks it as an invalid number. Correction: Add +1 in front to get +13051234567.

Error case 2 - Mixing in international long distance prefix 011 or 001

Original: 01113051234567 or 0013051234567 Question: 011/001 is not a prefix allowed by E.164 and cannot be recognized by the system. Correction: Remove 011/001 and get +13051234567 (note that if it starts with 011, the first digit in the 11 digits is already 1, you need to confirm whether the length is 13 digits. The processing method is to delete the first three digits and add +).

Error Case 3 - Remaining spaces/brackets

Original:+1 (305) 123-4567 Problem: Spaces and parentheses cause system parsing errors and are deemed invalid. Correction: Remove all non-numeric characters and keep only numbers and +, resulting in +13051234567.

Error case 4 - Non-US number segment mixed in

Original: +447911234567 (UK number) Issue: When filtering US active tg, numbers from other countries were accidentally mixed in. Although the format is standardized, it is not the target audience and wastes screening costs. Correction: Only keep numbers starting with +1 when cleaning, or use regular rules to exclude non-+1 numbers in advance.

What tools can be used to generate US numbers in batches in one step?

If you need to quickly obtain a large number of US numbers for preliminary screening (for example, to test Telegram activity), manually generating and cleaning the number segment list is very time-consuming. KK-DATA’s Global Number Generation module solves this problem:

• Enter the generation page, select the country “United States/Canada”, and the area code (NPA) can be customized (such as 305 Miami, 212 New York). -Set the generation quantity (such as 10,000, 50,000, 500,000).
• Generate CSV files with one click, and output all numbers directly into standard E.164 format (+1305xxxxxxx).
• It is generated for free, you can download it and use it directly for filtering without any cleaning steps.

In this way, what you get from the source is the standard E.164 number, completely bypassing the format error problem.

FAQ

Question: I have a list of U.S. number segments in the format of 305-123-4567. Can I upload it directly?

Answer: No. You must first delete all dashes, spaces, and brackets, and then add the U.S. country code +1 in front of the number to become +13051234567. The number screening system on the platform has strict requirements on number format and only recognizes the standard E.164 format.

Question: If the number format is not standard, will the platform prompt an error?

Answer: Some format errors (such as missing country code +1) will be judged as invalid numbers by the platform and will be directly marked as “unactivated” or “inactive” and the task will not be returned. It is recommended to use a text editor to replace non-numeric characters before uploading to avoid wasting balance on invalid numbers.

Question: I only want to screen active TGs in the United States. Is there an upper limit on the number of numbers I can upload each time?

Answer: KK-DATA supports up to about 1 million numbers in a single number screening task. However, it is recommended to submit the uploaded files in batches of about 100,000 items to facilitate checking for erroneous numbers and correcting the format midway. For extremely large tasks, please contact customer service (https://t.me/kkdata_robot）咨询分批策略。

Question: Is there any tool that can automatically help me check whether the number format is standard E.164?

Answer: The numbers exported by KK-DATA’s number generation module are already in the standard E.164 format. If you are using numbers from other sources, you can use Excel or Google Sheets formulas (such as ="+1"&SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-","")," ","")) to batch convert. The success rate of screening numbers will be higher after conversion.

---

Cleaning the number format is the most basic but critical step in obtaining US active TG data. According to the checklist in this article, if the original numbers are unified into the standard E.164 format of + plus 11 digits, the success rate of number screening can be increased by more than 30%, effectively reducing the customer acquisition cost. If you want to save yourself the trouble of manual cleaning, you may wish to directly use the number generation function of KK-DATA to generate American numbers in a standard format in one step, and then cooperate with the screening platform to batch detect activity and gender to quickly obtain high-value US Telegram activity data.

👉 Log in to the console to start screening numbers: https://app.kkdata.cc/ 💬 Two-way contact customer service (recommended): https://t.me/kkdata_robot 📖 Usage documentation and format requirements: https://docs.kkdata.cc/ 🌐 Official website to learn more: https://kkdata.cc/