Insights

Navy Federal Credit Union, First Orion, BCM One and Somos Talk How Credentials, Branding and Right-to-Use Work Together to Stop Spoofing

Nov 19, 2025

The 2025 Somos Summit brought together global thought leaders, industry experts and innovators to explore the intersection of Trust, Technology & Transformation. Held just outside Washington, D.C., this year’s event featured insightful sessions and meaningful conversations focused on advancing the telecom ecosystem and shaping the future of trusted communications.

In the session Powering Trusted Connections: Advancing Call Authentication for Secure Branded Communication, Moderator Ryan Karnas, Senior Director of Product Management at Somos led a deep-dive on how Right-to-Use phone number validation, delegate certificates and branding work together to make calls trustworthy at scale. He was joined by Chris Wendt, VP of Systems Engineering at Somos; Julie Fowler, VP of Sales Engineering at First Orion; Anna Fridley, AVP, Cyber Advanced Analysis Team at Navy Federal Credit Union; and Randy Lemmo, SVP of Network Operations at BCM One.

Ryan Karnas opened on the core problem: trust must travel from the initiator to the end user. Randy Lemmo framed the carrier view plainly: “You can’t abandon the vetting process.” He added, “If you have the Right-to-Use, that means you can lose that right if you don’t use it properly.” Branding only helps when receivers believe what they see. Otherwise, “all you’re doing is creating noise.”

Explaining how credentials operationalize trust across the call path, Chris said “We’re extending… service provider trust, further to the end user.” Using authority tokens and delegate certificates, an enterprise can prove it is the rightful user of a number and pass that proof through partners. Trust is only established if the other side believes what you’re trying to portray to them,” he said.

From the enterprise side, Anna Fridley explained why this matters. Navy Federal uses its own numbers and legitimate third parties do too, but “criminals are also using our phone numbers,” she said. Building verifiable identity into the path gives consumers confidence that the party on the line is who the screen says it is.

Julie Fowler walked through branding safeguards and why authentication must gate presentation. “So holistic and rigorous vetting is non-negotiable for rich branding and spoof blocking solutions.” After Know Your Customer (KYC) and number Right-to-Use checks, per-call authentication lets terminating networks decide whether to display name, logo and call reason or to block a spoof outright.

Randy described BCM One’s rollout of Resp Org-level certificates as a baseline for delegating Right-to-Use. The work is a journey with education and measurable gains, not a silver bullet. The goal is simple: complete legitimate calls and reduce customer frustration while the ecosystem evolves together.

Ryan closed with a call to align on common standards so Right-to-Use credentials, STIR/SHAKEN and branding interoperate cleanly from telephone to telephone. When identity is authenticated before the ring, fraud gets stopped earlier, enterprises regain confidence in voice and consumers start answering again.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Right-to-Use is Foundational: Thorough vetting remains essential. Service providers must ensure customers are properly verified before assigning or authenticating numbers.

• Credentials Carry Trust End-to-End: Authority tokens and delegate certificates allow enterprises to prove number ownership throughout the call path, extending verification from origin to destination.

• Authentication Must Gate Branding: Robust identity checks and ongoing revalidation are prerequisites for branded calling and spoof blocking solutions.

• Real-world Urgency: Even well-informed consumers are vulnerable to spoofing and scams, making verifiable identity critical for restoring confidence in voice communication.
  
  Standards Unlock Scale: Industry alignment on shared frameworks and technical standards enables consistent, trustworthy identity enforcement across networks and platforms

Experience the full conversation at your convenience by watching the on-demand recording today!