The leader of the FCC and its Canadian counterpart Monday made what they say is the first official cross-border call using technology meant to combat illegal caller ID spoofing. The call took place between Comcast and TELUS networks using the SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication framework.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Chairperson/CEO Ian Scott said in a joint statement: “Spoofed, scam robocalls are an international problem. Both Americans and Canadians are being bombarded by these calls, which are too often used to defraud consumers and target some of our most vulnerable communities.
That’s why the FCC and CRTC are committed to combating robocalls by aggressively attacking the use of caller ID spoofing.”
The SHAKEN/STIR framework enables carriers to authenticate and verify the caller ID information of voice calls made using Internet Protocol. When a call between participating providers is transmitted without that authentication, the receiving carrier will know that the caller ID information is spoofed and can act to protect its customers from scams.
The FCC under Pai has enabled carriers to offer robocall blocking services by default, adopted rules banning malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign calls, and issued the largest fines in its history for violations of its caller ID spoofing rules. Pai has demanded that major carriers implement the SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication framework by the end of this year. If that deadline is not met, Pai says the agency will begin the process to mandate implementation.
December 12, 2019
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