Can calls be barred?

Question

iPhone

Good afternoon! There is a phone (Iphone 5s). The SIM card in it is used to run applications like Viber, Telegram, etc.
Regular calls are very distracting (spammers, scammers, people who hope to get through to this number even though they were told "only text messages in managers are accepted").
Is there any way to block incoming calls? So that no one can call this number? And so that vibers and other messengers work at the same time

Answer 1

Four options:

1. Enable blocking of all incoming calls (the so-called barring) through the phone menu (this is a USSD request that activates the blocking of all incoming calls in the subscriber profile in the operator's switch), but check with the operator if this will block incoming SMS [or check for yourself - turn on barring and send SMS to this number] - each operator sets it up in its own way, because you can bind different entities (trigger stages) in the switch to this service, which you control from the device menu.
   
2. Call the operator's support service and ask to turn off the teleservice of incoming calls - this works, because for commercial SIM cards they often turn off voice or packet communication (for example, a card in a payment terminal with a post-payment tariff and it needs only packet communication - from it there is no need to call, and in order to exclude the possibility of making calls from it by some service personnel, for such cards, the operator, at the request or agreement, disables one or another teleservice).
   
3. Set forwarding of incoming calls to another number, which will simply be turned off.
   
4. Install a third-party application that will answer incoming calls automatically. I'm not sure about the iPhone, but there are plenty of such apps for Android.