Insights

The Road to Telecom Redemption: Defeating Robocalls and Restoring Trust

Nov 07, 2023

Picture this: You’re sitting at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial (just taking a quick break from the 2023 Somos Summit) and you’re steadfastly gripping an article in your hands. It’s no ordinary read, though; it’s a sneak peek into a future where people don’t hesitate to answer their calls – even those they don’t recognize! A future where they are confident that our networks are secure (no robocalls or robotexts here!) and only carry clean traffic.

In a nutshell, it's the story of building a framework for a fraud-free future.

The roll-out of the STIR/SHAKEN framework and standards served as a solid foundation for tackling telecom fraud. The telecom industry is at a turning point and with STIR/SHAKEN almost completely implemented, it's high time to enhance the framework and eliminate fraudulent calls entirely. This might sound straightforward in theory, but in reality, it’s a lot, LOT more complex.

One of the primary challenges that stand in the way of achieving this goal is the lack of consistency in establishing trust and providing timely, useful feedback. Trust and confidence are essential not only for end-users but also for businesses who want to reach their customers. As a result of increasing robocalls and robotexts, end-users have become skeptical about answering calls or trusting the content of text messages.

The erosion of trust and confidence in telecom has far-reaching consequences for our digital society. To tackle these issues and engineer a comprehensive framework, a panel of industry experts, led by Sri Ramachandran, SVP and Chief Technology Officer at Somos, gathered together at the 2023 Somos Summit to break down the barriers to trust and champion the gravity of a collaborative approach.

The panel featured key figures in the telecom industry, including:

• Rebekah Johnson, CEO of Numeracle and ATIS Board member
• Greg Rogers, Head of Regulatory & Public Policy at Bandwidth and a Board member of the SIP Forum
• Chris Wendt, VP of Systems Engineering at Somos and Co-Chair of the IP-NNI group that authored the SHAKEN standards

Addressing the elephant in the room, the panelists did not hesitate to tackle the issue of call labeling head-on. While the TRACED Act mandated the use of STIR/SHAKEN standards for caller authentication, only 40% of calls in the U.S. currently comply with these standards. The result? Legitimate calls are getting wrongly labeled as spam and spam calls are sneaking through as legitimate. The panel went on to stress that a silver bullet solution doesn't exist; what's needed is a comprehensive framework that encompasses processes, participation and positive reinforcement.

So, what's the call to action for the industry? The industry must work together to regain trust and deliver value to consumers. Of the potential solutions discussed, Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerged as an opportunity to support the fight to reduce robocalls and robotexts.

With their marching orders laid out in hand and a guiding mission to join forces to build a comprehensive framework and restore trust and confidence in communications, the panelists were ready to share their closing thoughts on The Intersection of Trust and Confidence – Building a Framework for a Fraud-Free Future.

Chris Wendt: We don't want all our calls labeled spam. We need to return to a time when the telecom industry was proud of our ability to deliver customer calls. It's a lot about getting back to the basics of what product we are delivering as an industry and having the right perspective that trust in telephone numbers is the right path to deliver that.

Greg Rogers: It’s not going to happen overnight. As you see improvements in reducing robocalling and unwanted calls, you don’t fundamentally undermine the trust of Public Switched Telephone Numbers (PTSNs).

Rebekah Johnson: We’ve got to come to reality and do our part to accept the identity, deliver the identity, render identity and present the identity.

Sri Ramachandran: We must go from AI to TI: Artificial identity to Trusted identity!

Once trust is reestablished, the industry can potentially shed some of the mandates that have become necessary due to fraud. As Chris pointed out, "Once we have trust, the other Band-Aids we've put in as an industry won't be needed."

Piggybacking on what we will and won’t need moving forward, Rebekah drove the point home by stating, "Identity is where we need to go…Once you get an identity, you are empowered… we don't realize how much we use that."

It's clear that the industry is ready for change. But it's also evident that the telecom industry is at a crossroads, poised to embark on a journey to rebuild trust and confidence in communication… And we’re all here for the ride!

To learn more about the 2023 Somos Summit and to gain access to on-demand recordings, visit www.somos.com/summit.