More consumers than ever before are turning to their mobile devices to conduct banking transactions via SMS and Rich Communications Services (RCS). In fact, the Global Mobile Money Market size was valued at USD 4.24 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 31.88 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 28.67% from 2021 to 2028. But, while the opportunity for the booming mobile money market is great, it does not come without challenge – specifically around the mobile wallet itself. During the CFCA Summer Education Event session, “Protecting the Mobile Wallet: Why Number Portability is Critical to Safeguarding Mobile Banking,” iconectiv’s Jonathan Herttua, Director of Information Solutions, and Carolyn Knight, Senior Account Manager for the company’s United States Local Number Portability (LNPA) team will examine how number portability data can be used in a new way to help keep mobile money safe for customers and banks.

Service providers are under significant pressure to sustain revenue growth and profitability while delivering new digital services. At the same time, regulations, technology disruptions, intensifying competition and changing customer demands are also placing telecom operators at a financial and operational crossroads: How can they grow their businesses while reducing cost and mitigating risk? During an upcoming webinar, “Driving Financial Decisions and Compliance with Fixed Asset Management”, iconectiv’s Eyad Alqadi, Regional Director for Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and John Hayes, Senior Director, will explore the role that FAM plays in providing critical information to drive financial decisions and ensure compliance.

As part of its new policy, the Secure Telephony Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA) has approved iconectiv as a responsible organization (RespOrg), allowing it to verify the identity of the businesses and contact center operators authorized to use toll-free telephone numbers on our RespOrg. Industry initiatives such as STIR/SHAKEN are rebuilding consumer confidence in voice calls. As a RespOrg, iconectiv now can help verify the identity of the businesses and contact center operators authorized to use toll-free telephone numbers on our RespOrg to help ensure that their outbound calls are not mistakenly flagged as spam.

The past few years have demonstrated just how much we depend on our mobile phones – for services, connection and convenience. As a result, digital transformation is gaining significant momentum, and identity verification is becoming more critical than ever. Businesses need to have trust in knowing who their customers are and consumers need to trust that the company that is calling or texting them is indeed who they say they are. In a recent interview with Mobile World Live, iconectiv Senior Vice President George Cray provided insights on how the industry is working to re-establish trust in the global communications ecosystem and the role that iconectiv plays in pushing digital transformation forward while ensuring service providers comply with regulations.

In this day and age, where so many in-person interactions have been replaced with remote engagements, digital transformation has become fundamental. As a result, businesses and consumers are relying on their mobile devices more than ever – utilizing voice and text communications to navigate their personal and professional lives. But with more than 85 billion spam phone calls being placed globally each year – costing trillions of dollars in lost business and productivity – keeping both the voice and messaging ecosystem safe for consumers and attractive to business is critical. In a recent interview with Mobile World Live, iconectiv CTO Chris Drake answered these questions, and discussed how to further build trust in communications, insights on new solutions to better identify legitimate businesses and more.

Each year, communications service providers (CSPs) worldwide lose over US$39 billion to fraud such as illegal robocalls, SMS phishing (“smishing”) and “wangiri” callback schemes, according to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA) and analyst firms. During the panel session, “Protect Your Customers from One-Ring Scams: Trusted Tools to Fight Fraud,” iconectiv telecom fraud expert David Estes will discuss how CSPs are upgrading their existing call-blocking analytics to identify calls from high-risk and unallocated number ranges and suspicious premium-rate numbers.

Years of illegal robocalls, SMS spam and fraud have undermined consumer trust in voice calls and text messages, including those from toll-free numbers. Restoring trust is critical for service providers and all the retailers, schools, healthcare providers and other organizations that depend on toll-free numbers to inform and engage consumers. As a new co-chair of the ATIS SMS/800 Number Administration Committee (SNAC), iconectiv Senior Account Director Mike Gilbert will oversee key toll-free number industry initiatives such as ensuring consumer trust in voice calls and text messaging.