# Phone Generates a random telephone number that matches the country or region of the input telephone number, but preserves the format. For example, (123) 456-7890 or 123-456-7890. If the input is not a valid telephone number, the generator randomly replaces numeric characters. You can also replace invalid numbers with valid numbers. By default, the numbers are United States telephone numbers. If the input is a valid telephone number, or if you replace invalid numbers, then the generated numbers pass Google's [`libphonenumber`](https://github.com/google/libphonenumber) verification. ## Characteristics


Consistency	Yes, can be made self-consistent.
Linking	No, cannot be linked.
Differential privacy	No
Data-free	No
Allowed for primary keys	No
Allowed for unique columns	No
Uses format-preserving encryption (FPE)	No
Privacy ranking	3
Generator ID (for the API)	`USPhoneNumberGenerator`

## How to configure To configure the generator: 1. Toggle the **Replace invalid numbers** setting to indicate whether to replace invalid input values with a valid output value.\ \ By default, the generator does not replace invalid values. It randomly replaces numeric characters. 2. Toggle the **Consistency** setting to indicate whether to make the generator self-consistent.\ \ By default, consistency is disabled. 3. If [Structural data encryption](https://docs.tonic.ai/app/generation/generators-assign-config/generators-data-encryption-config) is enabled, then to use it for this column, in the advanced options section, toggle **Use data encryption process** to the on position.