diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 626c378..3776961 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ setup(name='talon',
       zip_safe=True,
       install_requires=[
           "lxml==2.3.3",
-          "regex==0.1.20110315",  # handling of .* changes from version 0 to 1
+          "regex>=1",
           "html2text",
           "nose==1.2.1",
           "mock",
diff --git a/talon/signature/learning/helpers.py b/talon/signature/learning/helpers.py
index 38259c3..51a9227 100644
--- a/talon/signature/learning/helpers.py
+++ b/talon/signature/learning/helpers.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ from talon.signature.constants import SIGNATURE_MAX_LINES
 rc = re.compile
 
 RE_EMAIL = rc('@')
-RE_RELAX_PHONE = rc('.*(\(? ?[\d]{2,3} ?\)?.{,3}){2,}')
+RE_RELAX_PHONE = rc('(\(? ?[\d]{2,3} ?\)?.{,3}?){2,}')
 RE_URL = rc(r'''https?://|www\.[\S]+\.[\S]''')
 
 # Taken from:
diff --git a/tests/signature/learning/helpers_test.py b/tests/signature/learning/helpers_test.py
index 7a57f6c..704db4e 100644
--- a/tests/signature/learning/helpers_test.py
+++ b/tests/signature/learning/helpers_test.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ VALID_PHONE_NUMBERS = [e.strip() for e in VALID.splitlines() if e.strip()]
 
 def test_match_phone_numbers():
     for phone in VALID_PHONE_NUMBERS:
-        ok_(RE_RELAX_PHONE.match(phone), "{} should be matched".format(phone))
+        ok_(RE_RELAX_PHONE.search(phone), "{} should be matched".format(phone))
 
 
 def test_match_names():