Trestle’s Data Quality Tracker: January 2026
Each month, Trestle publishes aggregations and insights into some of our product’s most popular data attributes. This Data Quality Tracker blog contextualizes the quality of your leads, contacts, and sign-ups and how they benchmark against the rest of the industry. Please note: All data presented in this blog is aggregated and is not from an individual customer.
Phone Contact Grade
Trestle’s Phone Contact Grade assigns a grade to leads and sign-ups based on their authenticity and contactability. It considers various signals, including phone linkages to subscribers, phone activity, metadata such as line type and carrier, as well as the feedback loop we receive from customers. Signals we have observed over the years correlate well with determining whether a lead is real and contactable.
This knowledge-base article can provide additional context on what these grades mean and how we determine them. When you apply such grade-based filters to lead workflows, you can minimize wasted efforts and focus on the leads that matter most.
Below, you will find a breakdown of the Phone Contact Grade distribution observed by Trestle across all our customers.
January 2026
Observations:
In January we saw a jump in low phone contact grades, driven primarily by volume increases from customers vetting low activity phone leads, which receive lower contact grades.
Identifying low-quality leads benefits businesses by reducing wasted time on leads that are unlikely to answer the phone or respond to outreach. A reminder on how to read the grades and their meanings is available in this knowledge base.
How do these results compare to the quality of your company’s leads? Trestle has launched a free Real Contact Data Assessment report, which you can use to compare these results to your leads.
Phone Activity Score
Below, you’ll find a comprehensive breakdown of the activity score distribution observed by Trestle across all our customers. We’ve categorized the data into three distinct categories:
- The percentage of phones we see with activity scores of 70 and above. This is where we see consistent activity with the phone through our networks.
- The percentage of phones we see with activity scores between 31 and 69. This is where we see slightly inconsistent activity with the phone through our networks.
- The percentage of phones we see with activity scores of 30 or below. This is where we see low to no activity associated with the phone through our networks.
This knowledge-base article can provide a quick primer on interpreting the activity score. If you are interested in how this score is calculated, check out this article.
January 2026
Observations:
In January we observed a significant increase in the rate of low activity scores that indicate disconnected or not actively in use phones (0-30). This was primarily driven by large volume increases from customers seeking to vet suspected disconnected phones.
Phone Line Type
Understanding phone validity and line type is not just about distinguishing between landlines and mobile phones; it also involves recognizing the differences between various types of mobile phones. With the introduction of VoIP, the dynamics of communications and how businesses and consumers use these numbers have evolved. The chart below provides valuable insights into the line type distribution Trestle observed last month across our customers. This distribution represents the phone line type seen by Trestle for the numbers queried by businesses on lead forms or account sign-ups.
January 2026
Observations:
In January we observed a significant uptick in mobile phones, primarily due to large batch runs from customers focused on mobile phone activity and connected status.
Top Three U.S. Mobile Carrier Distribution
Phone Carrier Distribution provides context into the market’s state and insights into how your lead list compares to the rest of the industry. Essentially, the majority of your sign-ups are from these carriers. In the coming months, we will further analyze our carrier data and publish more insights to compare lead quality against the typical benchmarks we observe.
January 2026
Observations:
In January, Verizon continued to be the most queried carrier in our logs. Overall, we saw increases in the rates of the big three carriers. That trend was driven by volume increases from customers looking for mobile phone validation, with the majority of those mobile line types served by the major network operators.
What can businesses do about bad leads?
Services like Trestle’s Phone Validation API or Real Contact API can help verify leads and sign-ups, filter out disconnected phones, and ensure you prioritize the highest-quality leads that are the most contactable.
When your leads and sign-ups are sourced from various channels, use this data to work with them and address these issues at the front end rather than dealing with returned leads or fake/fraudulent sign-ups. The cost savings, both operational and from receiving only higher-quality sign-ups, could be multiple times more than the cost of these verification services. Focusing your efforts on these higher-quality leads and sign-ups will also improve conversions, resulting in a higher ROI.
We value your input. Do these numbers align with your business’s experience? How can we further enhance lead quality and reduce the cost of goods sold (COGS)? Can we help you identify and avoid fake, bot, or fraudulent leads?
If you are curious to know the data quality of your leads, you can get free data insights with our Real Contact Data Assessment. You can also set up a meeting, email us at support@trestleiq.com, or check out our Phone Validation demo.
