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With illegal robocalls now representing nearly half of all unwanted calls in the U.S., consumers are opting to simply not pick up their phones. In fact, studies show that in the U.S. alone, 76% of calls from an unidentified or unfamiliar number are left unanswered, and 58% of consumers only answer calls from numbers they recognize. In a recent Help Net Security article, Chris Drake, SVP of Corporate and Business Development at iconectiv, explains the need for a centralized, industry-standard framework, where legitimate numbers can be registered to help avoid confusion, unnecessary costs and inconsistency.

The Covid pandemic has accelerated not only digital adoption but also the scale and spread of scams. Every month, over 4 billion scam calls are made globally, with 23% of Americans reporting that they have lost money due to such calls in 2021 alone. George Cray, Senior Vice President at iconectiv, is featured in a recent Cybernews article regarding the rise in global scam attacks.

As companies gear up to spend approximately $2.8 trillion USD on digital transformation by 2025, network operators and the ecosystem that makes B2C communications possible, need to make sure their customers have the confidence that the calls and texts they are receiving are from legitimate companies. In anticipation of MWC22, VanillaPlus magazine recently spoke with Peter Ford, Executive Vice President at iconectiv, regarding the impact digital transformation will have on connectivity and communications, as well as identity verification.

iconectiv estimates that CSPs lose up to 20% of their annual capital expenditure—$65 billion industry-wide—because of communication challenges, asset complexity and misunderstood inventory. Under pressure to deliver 5G, edge computing, virtualized networking and other capabilities, CSPs are using a common language for the deployment, interconnection and management of physical and virtual assets. In this VanillaPlus article, Eyad Alqadi and John Hayes explain how common language provides visibility for CSPs and their external organizations—such as partners and vendors—to easily understand and optimize their assets.

STIR/SHAKEN is a now widely-adopted protocol enabling telecoms to feed calling party attestation info to consumers when they receive a call from businesses and organizations of all types and sizes. George Cray, iconectiv Senior Vice President of Product along with an expert from CTIA, sits down with Dan Baker, editor from Black Swan Telecom Journal, to discuss the adoption of initiatives like Registered Caller.

The science of selling is constantly evolving. Over the last several decades, selling has become more capital intensive, data driven and teamwork oriented. Several secular forces have been changing the nature of selling incrementally over time. Peter Ford, Head of Information Solutions Business at iconectiv, shares his insights on allocating the most effort toward the biggest customer opportunities.

People simply do not answer the telephone anymore unless they unequivocally know who is calling. That is hurting legitimate businesses that rely on voice calls to reach their customers. In the latest Network Media Group panel, experts from iconectiv, CTIA, and T-Mobile address the industry's progress in restoring consumer faith and confidence and how a new policy change is helping simplify the verification process.