May 26, 2020 / Written by Angela Garfinkel
  • QVD announced today that it is one of the first telephone carriers authorized by the STIR/SHAKEN governing authority to digitally sign calls with full attestation for its customers.
  • As an authorized SHAKEN Service Provider Company, QVD specializes in providing reputation-based™ telecom services. Our proprietary technology and vast experience within the industry, enable us to digitally sign & deliver our customers’ calls with full attestation.

Aurora, NE (May 26, 2020) Quality Voice & Data, Inc., a national telecom carrier licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today that it has been authorized as a SHAKEN Service Provider by iConective, the STIR/SHAKEN administrator. QVD has met the rigorous requirements necessary to provide call attestation at the highest level for their customers.

To address the avalanche of complaints related to illegal scam robocalls in the U.S., Federal & State agencies and the telecom industry worked together to evolve the way callers are identified, including a way to trace back any call, to its originator.  Dean Garfinkel, QVD’s CEO shared his perspective, “Back in the 80s, telephone companies ran a ‘wire’ to a phone in a building, and as such a call could be traced back, using that ‘wire’ to find that building. New technologies replaced that wire with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) which replaced that ‘wire’ with an IP address making it almost impossible to trace back a call to an originator. Hence illegal robo calls continue to plague us all.”

On January 6, 2020 the Traced Act was signed into law and states: “The FCC must require voice service providers to implement the STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework on all IP networks and to take reasonable measures to implement an effective call authentication framework on all non-IP networks”. Today 95% of all US-based wireless carriers have already adopted the SHAKEN framework on their networks. Over the next year and half as full adoption by the wireline carriers is realized, order will be restored to the telecom infrastructure and cell phone users will once again answer calls in confidence.

The guiding principle behind this new framework requires authorized SHAKEN Service Providers (aka Telephone Companies) to digitally sign their customers’ calls and most importantly, know who their customers are. Regulators will have easy access to identifying the origin of any call because the SHAKEN digital signature will provide the required information.  Any carrier, who fails to identify who their customer is, would be subject to losing their ability to sign future calls.

QVD’s Trusted Call Completion™ services help businesses maximize answer rates while protecting their telephone reputation. The first step for any customer is becoming a TrustedCaller™, this allows the company to introduce its customers to the telephony ecosystem as a Legitimate Caller.  As part of this process, customers are required to complete a third-party verification process, which essentially validates an organization as legitimate and affirms their intentions align with the overall spirit of the TRACED ACT and STIR/SHAKEN Framework. Utilizing QVD’s Local Caller ID numbers which are vetted in real-time against multiple databases and the leading authentication hub, ensures they are not blocked or labeled as spam out of the gate.

Next, QVD layers its Monitoring & Remediation™ service, one of the most powerful brand-protection solutions in the market, includes monitoring – in real time how a customer’s calls appear on all major wireless handsets; utilizing instant remediation to defend how its customers appear on over 50% of the wireless handsets in the USA. QVD telephone numbers are registered & stored in this leading authentication hub that relies on real-time network data for over one billion daily call events across more than 400 carriers. Using the same authentication hub, QVD monitors customer numbers in real-time; gaining immediate insight into when their Caller ID number(s) are mislabeled or potentially blocked. “As a result, we can remediate a potential block or mislabel decision in real-time on over 50% of the wireless handsets in USA” – adds Garfinkel.

Last, QVD terminates customers outbound telephone calls over its Elastic SIP trunk service. As an authorized SHAKEN Service Provider Company, QVD terminates directly to other SHAKEN carriers ensuring calls are digitally signed & delivered with the highest level of attestation. Participating SHAKEN carriers include (but not limited to) Verizon Wireless, ATT Wireless, T-Mobile, US Sprint, US Cellular.  More info at authenticate.iconectiv.com

“We are thrilled to be part of bringing trust back to the telecom ecosystem – and more importantly ensuring the telephone numbers used by our customers have a good reputation. Too many legitimate business phone calls continue to be improperly blocked or labeled on wireless devices. In the last 3 months, a transformation, that was expected to take years, has been realized as most business are now working from home, and receiving calls on their mobile devices. Making sure businesses’ outbound calls get answered is critical to getting our economy back in gear. As SHAKEN becomes fully adopted by all telecom carriers, as mandated by law, blocking and labeling algorithms which can’t differentiate between legitimate calls and scammers, will become less of an obstacle for our business customers. Our Trusted Call Completion™ services will bolster their telecom reputation and ability to operate” – concludes Dean Garfinkel, CEO.

Please contact Kelsey@qualityvoicedata.com for more details.

About Quality Voice & Data, Inc. 

Founded in 2010, Quality Voice & Data, Inc. offers secure and reliable cloud-based telecom switching and VoIP services for customers nationally.  This includes local Caller ID numbers, IVR, PBX, SMS & MMS messaging, Conference Calling, Compliance Phone, Monitoring & Remediation services, and SIP trunking with Shaken Attestation. Our Trusted Call Completion™ service is known for maximizing our customers answer rates and protecting their reputation. Visit us at www.qualityvoicedata.com

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Media Contacts:
Kelsey Olsen

516 656-5122

kelsey@qualityvoicedata.com


Written by Angela Garfinkel

Angela Garfinkel, Director at Quality Voice and Data, brings over 30 years of experience in call center and business process outsourcing. Well known in the telemarketing and telecommunications industry, she co-authored a course for The Direct Marketing Association and actively participates in professional groups like PACE. Her educational background includes an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Telecommunications Management from the University of Nebraska.