iconectiv issues the following statement regarding the company’s
recent appointment as U.S. Policy Administrator for SHAKEN – the
FCC-endorsed, industry-wide initiative to stop illegal robocalls:
iconectiv is pleased to be part of the industry-wide solution that will
help mitigate illegal robocalls and give people confidence to actually
answer a phone call again.
Currently, 76%
of calls are left unanswered when the call comes from an unidentified or
unfamiliar number, which means that we are no longer answering many of
the calls we want from schools, doctors, business associates and others
because we fear that it’s a fake call. If they leave a message, we will
return the call. This has become the “new normal,” which is fraught with
inefficiencies and frustration for consumers and businesses and is
compromising the way we communicate.
The situation was exasperated with the many advances in VoIP*
technology, which now allow a massive number of phone calls to be
initiated very cheaply and where the calling party can select what
appears on the caller ID. These tactics resulted in the exponential
growth of illegal spam and scam calls, which reached 85B
globally in 2018 – a 325% jump from 2017.
The SHAKEN (Signature-based
Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) framework is an
industry initiative that will help reduce illegal robocalls and ensure
that consumers have the information they need to make an informed
decision whether to answer a call.
“This is a critical building block in keeping the integrity of the phone
number and we are energized to be part of this collaborative initiative
that puts the value of phone calls back in the hands of Americans,” said
Richard Jacowleff, President and CEO, iconectiv. “With this
FCC-endorsed, industry-led initiative, service providers will be able to
more readily confirm legitimate calls and trace and block illegitimate
ones so that consumers can, once again, enjoy answering calls with
confidence.”
“Illegal robocalls plague countries the world over and numerous eyes are
on the U.S. as a first mover,” Jacowleff added. “We look forward to
being part of the team that is demonstrating the effectiveness of this
solution so that other nations can bring similar relief to their
citizens.”
More information can be found here.
* VoIP relies on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), one of the most
common protocols used in VoIP technology.
About iconectiv
At iconectiv, we envision a world without boundaries, where the ability
to access and exchange information is simple, secure and seamless. As
the authoritative partner of the communications industry for more than
30 years, our market-leading solutions enable the interconnection of
networks, devices and applications for more than two billion people
every day. We have intimate knowledge of the intricacies and
complexities involved in creating, operating and securing the
communications infrastructure for service providers, regulators,
enterprises, aggregators and content providers. Our 5,000+ global
clients rely on us for network and operations management, numbering,
registry and fraud prevention solutions. We are proud to be enabling the
world of tomorrow by making new connections today. A US-based company,
Telcordia Technologies, does business as iconectiv. For more
information, visit www.iconectiv.com.
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