What Call Centers Need To Know About SHAKEN/STIR

Aurora, NE (February 11th, 2021) Quality Voice & Data, Inc. (QVD) announces that the webinar recording “What Call Centers Need To Know About STIR/SHAKEN” was presented to BPESA members in conjunction with Mac Murray & Shuster, is now available to the public. 

STIR/SHAKEN Background

Geared towards restoring trust in voice communications by ensuring the legitimacy of outbound calls, STIR/SHAKEN’s goal is to prevent fraudulent callers from scamming consumers and businesses through robocalls and illegal phone number spoofing.

STIR/SHAKEN is the new technical standard used to transmit calls from telephone carriers to consumers. 

Telephone carriers or voice service providers will be required to digitally sign each call using a token indicating that the carrier knows who their customer is and that they are authorized to use the number no later than July 2021. Most carriers have already started signing calls. The SHAKEN Caller ID authentication framework will verify the point of origination of a call with the ability to trace it back to where it originated.

STIR refers to what happens on the consumer side. Based on the type of digital signature received from the carrier, the call will either go through or be blocked completely. 

With the looming June 2021 implementation deadline of the STIR/SHAKEN standards, many carriers are already begun signing calls so it’s essential that call centers understand the requirements for authentication and take action asap or outbound calls to consumers are at risk of being completely blocked by this deadline. 

Recently the FCC provided safe harbor for any telephone company who blocks a call if they believe their consumer customers wouldn’t want to receive it.

Already, Carriers who are exchanging tokens are using the SHAKEN data point to help them make the decision to block or complete calls to their customers.

With the STIR/SHAKEN process, every outbound phone number will be assigned a level of trustworthiness or attestation.

• Full Attestation (A) — Carrier has confidence in identity of the caller and callers’ right to use caller ID information presented.

• Partial Attestation (B) — Carrier has confidence in identity of the caller but not the callers’ right to use caller ID information presented.

• Gateway Attestation (C) — Carrier cannot certify the identity of caller or their right to use caller ID information presented. Carrier merely acted as a gateway to place call on network.  

Industry leaders Dean Garfinkel, President of Quality Voice & Data, and Michele Shuster, Managing Partner at Mac Murray & Shuster and compliance expert, were the webinar facilitators focused on the SHAKEN/STIR impact with call centers.

Dean Garfinkel said, “Call centers need to understand that outbound calls placed without being digitally signed with the highest level of attestation are at risk for not getting through to your customers. The authentication process is simple. It’s not worth the risk to businesses to ignore the SHAKEN standards. Contact rates will continue to decline without the highest level of attestation.”

Garfinkel also noted that as of July 2021, the FCC ruled all carriers in the United States must be SHAKEN. For calls made within the United States or made from carrier to carrier within the United States that do not carry a token with attestation, it’s up to the carriers to determine if they’ll pass the call to the consumer. 

When asked what actions call centers needed to take now to ensure operations weren’t affected, Michele Shuster shared, “Call centers need to contact their carrier(s) now and ask how their STIR/SHAKEN implementation is progressing. Call centers must understand how to get the A level attestation to help ensure calls will get through to consumers so the business can continue as usual.”

About Mac Murray & Shuster LLP:

Mac Murray & Shuster LLP (M&S) is a boutique law firm that provides consumer protection regulatory compliance and defense to businesses in heavily regulated industries, including teleservices, automotive, financial services, healthcare, debt collection, and charitable contributions. Led by a former Ohio Attorney General and three Consumer Protection Chiefs, M&S helps clients navigate and thrive in a complex regulatory environment through proactive compliance management and aggressive representation in litigation and other matters before state and federal agencies including the FCC, FTC, CFPB, and state attorneys general.

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