Insights

Driving Customer Confidence and Trust with A-Level Attestation and STIR/SHAKEN

Jul 16, 2020

This directive was just one of many key conclusions that came out of the SIP Forum’s recent STIR/SHAKEN Virtual Summit. The session titled: Enterprise STIR/SHAKEN PoC – Restoring Trust to Enterprise Originated Voice Calls focused in large part on the subject of trust and not only building that foundation of trust, but also how Service Providers can help businesses and enterprises leverage products and solutions to strengthen trust with their customers and bring additional value.

Featuring industry experts Douglas Ranalli, Founder – NetNumber, Inc., Chris Wendt, Director, IP Comms & RTC Solutions – Comcast and Co-Chair SIP Forum/ATIS IP-NNI Joint Task Force and Somos’ own David Stewart, Vice President Business Development, the trio discussed the hot topic of A-level attestation and how implementing STIR/SHAKEN protocols needs to help enterprises achieve this level of attestation. 

The conversation started with a brief review of the different levels of attestation. To achieve full attestation or A-level attestation, the signing Service Provider (OSP) is required to: be responsible for the origination of the call onto the IP based service provider voice network, have a direct relationship with the customer and can identify the customer and have an established a verified association with the telephone number used for the call. Simply stated:

As the speakers noted, and as data supports, enterprises who can talk directly to customers reap countless benefits over those who cannot or do not. But in order to be able to have these direct conversations, customers need to answer calls from enterprises, which means that before anything else, consumers need to be able to trust the number that is calling them. In order to provide a frictionless, enhanced customer experience, the speakers identified three key components of the STIR/SHAKEN standard that are required to achieving A-level attestation:

Once these efforts have been carried out, how do we measure whether or not we were successful? At a high-level, and in the simplest terms, the speakers defined success as the effective delivery of verified enterprise calls including the correct calling-name display. That stated, how do we go beyond the baseline and create a truly memorable and quality user experience? 

To learn more about how to approach reviving trust in the PSTN (public switch telephone network), the unique challenges associated with awarding A-level attestation to enterprise originated calls and more, check out a recording of Enterprise STIR/SHAKEN PoC – Restoring Trust to Enterprise Originated Voice Calls (note: viewers will need to complete a registration form before being taken directly to the recording).

Additionally, learn more about how Somos, as a proven leader in data solutions and registry management, is developing, testing and delivering the tools needed to preserve our industry’s integrity and fight the proliferation of Toll-Free fraud, check out our recent blog, Help Advance the Future of Toll-Free Number Subscriber Authentication.