Open Carrier Data

Open Carrier Data is a public database of mobile carrier settings. It stores neutral JSON carrier profiles in carriers/open/ and turns them into Android APN and CarrierConfig files under generated/. It exists for ROM builders, carrier configuration apps, eSIM tools, and build systems. They can ship APN, MMS, IMS, RCS, and eSIM data locally instead of maintaining the same fixes alone. Phones read the packaged files at runtime. Nothing in this project is a network service.

Get the data

You can get the data in three ways. Each one works as of 2026-10-04.

To take everything, including tools and schemas, clone the public repo:

git clone https://github.com/open-carrier-data/open-carrier-data.git

To read the stable snapshot without a checkout, download the raw index:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-carrier-data/open-carrier-data/main/generated/index.json | head -c 200

To ship the APN list in a build, copy the one file Android reads:

cp generated/android/apns-conf.xml /path/to/your/build/vendor/apn/open-carrier-data/apns-conf.xml

docs/consume.md shows the Android.bp switch that installs it and what carrier-config-list.xml overrides.

Read docs/consume.md before you ship the XML. The checked-in APN XML targets database version 8.

Resolve one SIM

To find every profile that applies to one SIM, run the resolver with the SIM's facts:

python3 tools/resolve_carrier_profiles.py --mccmnc 26202 --spn Vodafone.de

On 2026-10-03 the output starts like this:

{
  "profiles": [
    {
      "android_apn_count": 15,
      "capabilities": {
        "esim": "unknown",
        "ims_conference": "unknown",
        "mms": "conditional",

Profiles come back in generic-to-specific order. Apply each one as an overlay on the previous one. Capabilities are not inherited; see docs/consume.md. With --mccmnc alone only the broad profile returns. SPN, GID, IMSI, and ICCID profiles need their own flags.

What is in this repository

Status on 2026-10-04

The data republishes whenever a source changes, so these values drift. The commands below the table print the current ones. The table leaves out the freshness window, which moves with every Samsung refresh. The commands print it.

Eleven source names appear in profiles and twelve snapshot records exist. aosp maps to the snapshots aosp_carrier_config and aosp_carrier_ids, and lineageos_device_overlays maps to lineageos_device_carrier_overlays. The samsung_omc and samsung_ims records carry a content hash as their revision and NOASSERTION as their terms.

Counts and the freshness window come from these commands, run from the repo root:

ls carriers/open | wc -l
python3 -c 'print(len({s for p in __import__("json").load(open("generated/evidence-index.json"))["profiles"] for s in p["sources"]}))'
python3 -c 'print(len(__import__("json").load(open("generated/evidence-index.json"))["source_snapshots"]))'
python3 -c 'print(__import__("json").load(open("generated/android/metadata.json"))["checks_through"])'
python3 -c 'print(__import__("json").load(open("generated/android/metadata.json"))["stale_after"])'
python3 -c 'print(len(__import__("json").load(open("generated/devices/android.json"))["devices"]))'
python3 -c 'print(len(__import__("json").load(open("generated/devices/apple.json"))["devices"]))'
python3 -c 'print(__import__("json").load(open("generated/devices/index.json"))["platforms"]["android"]["carrier_data_coverage_counts"]["exact_carrier_data_observed"])'
python3 -c 'print(sum(p["verified_observation_count"] for p in __import__("json").load(open("generated/evidence-index.json"))["profiles"]))'

Limits to read before you ship

Read these before you depend on the data:

• In plain words, the four capability values mean:
  • supported: at least one phone maker's or OS settings for this SIM turn the feature on, and no source whose off counts turns it off. It does not tell you that the carrier still offers it, that your plan includes it, or that your phone model is allowed.
  • conditional: the sources disagree, often between phone models. The feature often works.
  • unsupported: the carrier's own settings, or two independent sources, turn it off.
  • unknown: no reliable source. It does not mean "no".
• A carrier can still block a feature that its settings turn on. The usual gates are a list of approved phone models (common in the US, Australia and Sweden), an option you must book in your plan (LIDL Connect's Wi-Fi calling, for example), a carrier server that must approve the phone first (in the US, often with a registered emergency address for Wi-Fi calling), a service the operator has ended (MMS in Germany), roaming limits, and the Wi-Fi network you use (its DNS or firewall can keep Wi-Fi calling from reaching the carrier). None of these shows in carrier settings, so no source tells OCD about them; only a test with your SIM, plan and phone does. Some keys hint at a gate: carrier_volte_provisioning_required_bool and the REG09 Wi-Fi calling error mapping.
• A switch that carrier-config-list.xml leaves out is not neutral: your phone keeps what its ROM already says, which for VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling and video calling is usually off, and for MMS, SMS over IMS and conference calls usually on. docs/consume.md lists the defaults.
• A phone that has already picked an APN keeps it after you install a newer apns-conf.xml. Android finds its chosen row again by its content. New rows and a new order take effect for a newly inserted SIM, or after Settings, Access Point Names, Reset to default.
• No profile has been verified on a phone. Every value comes from a maintained source, not from a test call.
• A capability value says what carrier tables configure, not what works. It does not say the operator still offers the service: tables often keep a service for months or years after an operator ends it. supported means at least one phone maker's or OS carrier table turns the feature on for this SIM and none turns it off; it may still be off on your phone, or on phones the carrier has not approved. unsupported needs the operator's own configuration, or two independent source families, turning it off. One maker's off alone is published as unknown, and its false CarrierConfig switch is left out. For VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling and video calling, whose switch is off when it is missing, that off also does not take out a true switch another source sets: the switch is left out only for the operator's own off, an off from two families, or a true too old to publish. docs/data-model.md defines the four values, and capability_sources in generated/evidence-index.json names the families that turn each capability on and off.
• An MVNO without its own SPN, GID, or IMSI prefix in any source merges into the host network's profile. LIDL Connect runs on Vodafone Germany, and no profile names it, so its SIM resolves the 26202 profiles.
• CarrierConfig and add-on conflicts are omitted; conflicting APN rows are all published as variants. Every conflict is listed in generated/evidence-index.json.
• A capability whose only source family has no entry newer than five years is published as unknown: video calling for its age alone; VoLTE, VoWiFi, MMS and Wi-Fi calling while roaming only when that source is a frozen copy (Sony's or Fairphone's tree) or no fresh observation covers the profile's own scope. The CarrierConfig key that switches a withheld capability on is left out with it. Other APN rows and CarrierConfig values stay, however old, except APN rows LineageOS removed, which are left out unless a newer source gives them. generated/evidence-index.json gives the month of the newest entry behind each profile and each published capability where it is known. docs/how-it-is-built.md explains entry age.
• Every snapshot carries a freshness window. generated/android/metadata.json publishes checks_through, the oldest source check behind the data, and stale_after, the last date the data should ship. A check date means the lane behind the data ran, not that a value is current: only Samsung's update service and Google's Pixel update check confirm vendor data as current. How old the data is shows in newest_entry per profile in generated/android/lookup.json. The commands under the status table print both. The oldest Samsung observations set checks_through. Samsung's lane runs daily on the owner's self-hosted runner. It re-confirms observations whose firmware build is still current and re-extracts up to 50 CSC packages per run. Observations from superseded builds keep their July 2026 dates until they are re-extracted; whatever is still from July is quarantined on the day it turns 180 days old, the first on 2027-01-10. A weekly GitHub-hosted job re-checks the other source families. Their check dates are in generated/evidence-index.json under source_snapshots. The validators compare the UTC date with stale_after. By default they warn and exit 0, so a clone keeps validating after the deadline. The push and pull request check runs the validators in warn mode, so a stale snapshot never blocks a fix. The daily job runs them with --freshness fail and opens an issue labeled stale-data when they fail, and also when one lane's source was not checked within its limit (10 days for the daily Samsung lanes, 21 for the weekly ones) or the last publish is more than 21 days old.
• A device listed in generated/devices/ is an inventory fact. It is not a support claim. A device is covered only when carrier evidence names that exact identity. generated/devices/README.md defines the rule and the one command that prints the number.

How it is built

The pipeline runs in the private repo and publishes here:

source families -> candidate observations -> the sanitizer -> carrier profiles -> generated files

docs/how-it-is-built.md explains the merge rules, why profiles are neutral, and the freshness policy.

How to contribute

CONTRIBUTING.md explains the three issue forms under .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ and the pull request path for tools and docs. A correction reaches stable data through a maintained source, or a maintainer changes an importer, mapping or source with the evidence in the pull request. A field report never changes a published value by itself. It starts a review of the source or importer behind the value, and a fix reaches the data through that source or importer. There are no per-carrier overrides.

License

Software and documentation are Apache-2.0. The text is in LICENSE. The published carrier values are facts the project derived and normalized. The project publishes no vendor files and waives its own rights in the data under CC0 1.0. The details are in DATA-LICENSE.md.