METHOD FOR MANAGING AN UNALLOCATED TELEPHONE NUMBER IN A COMMUNICATION NETWORK, METHOD FOR PROCESSING A REQUEST FOR ALLOCATING A TELEPHONE NUMBER, CORRESPONDING DEVICES, ITEM OF COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAMS

A method for managing an unallocated telephone number in a communication network, the telephone number being previously allocated to a user of the communication network until a suspension date. The method is implemented by an item of equipment of the network and includes: obtaining information relating to a call set-up request received by the communication network to the telephone number during an observation period of time subsequent to the suspension date; updating, according to the information relating to the call set-up request, information relating to an activity level of the telephone number in the communication network, the information relating to an activity level being representative of a number of requests to set-up a call to the telephone number received by the network for the given observation period and storing in a data table the information relating to an activity level of the telephone number in association with the telephone number.