news & events

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.

In an effort to stave off the more than 85 billion illegal robocalls placed each year, as well as SMS phishing (“smishing”) and other fraud, industry players have banded together to keep the voice and messaging ecosystem safe for consumers and attractive to businesses. Abe Nejad, publisher of The Network Media Group, recently sat down with iconectiv Senior Vice President George Cray during Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona to discuss the latest on STIR/SHAKEN, Registered Caller™ and industry trends.

This year, consumers will lose $40 billion to fraudulent robocalls. The deluge of illegal robocalls also has conditioned 58 percent of consumers to answer calls only from numbers they recognize. This makes it difficult, expensive and sometimes impossible for hospitals, schools and other legitimate organizations to reach consumers. At a SIPNOC 2022 panel, Rich Call Data (RCD) Best Practices: Building Trust for Future Success, John Haraburda, Principal Solutions Engineer at iconectiv, will explore how RCD is poised to help increase call-answer rates by providing an enhanced caller ID display that includes a company’s name, logo and call intent.

With more than 85 billion spam phone calls placed globally each year costing trillions in lost business and productivity, keeping the voice ecosystem safe for consumers and attractive to business is an objective we all share. In the U.S., service providers and industry players have been focused on implementing solutions designed to ensure the integrity of communications networks and mitigate any call-answering hesitation. During the SIPNOC 2022 panel session, SHAKEN Goes Global: Opportunities and Challenges for Service Providers and Regulators Worldwide, George Cray, Senior Vice President at iconectiv, will outline a set of shared, technological best practices to extend this trust-restoring framework across country borders.

At MWC Barcelona 2022, iconectiv will share examples of successful industry initiatives and technologies that are restoring consumer trust in voice calls and text messaging, which is paramount to helping ensure the success of enterprise digital transformation. Rebuilding consumer trust in voice calls and text messages — after years of being undermined by illegal robocalls, SMS spam and fraud — is critical to the mobile ecosystem and all the retailers, schools, health care providers and other organizations that depend on it to inform and engage consumers.

57% of consumers say they now prefer online banking to traditional branch banking, and 55% prefer using mobile banking apps to stay on top of their finances, all according to the World Retail Banking Report. And, with contactless payments expected to continue rising worldwide to reach an over $1.6 trillion transaction value by 2024, according to data from BuyShares.co.uk, this burgeoning market is a major target for fraudsters looking to get a piece of the pie. During the MWC panel session, “The Rise of Scam Attacks,” iconectiv will examine the various attack vectors the industry faces – from illegal robocalls to smishing exploits – and what’s being done to address them.

Spam and illegal robocalls have caused consumers to stop answering calls from telephone numbers they don’t recognize. This poses a significant challenge for legitimate businesses trying to reach consumers by telephone with important or timely updates and information. A Registered Caller proof-of-concept trial with Verizon and Metaswitch successfully showed that valid enterprise calls were fully authenticated, shared and broadcasted for optimal call delivery to improve the call answer rate.