STIR/SHAKEN: What You Need to Know

Beginning June 30, 2021, the FCC started requiring all voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN protocols to combat fraudulently spoofed auto calls. This article was written to better explain STIR/SHAKEN, as well as the changes Tele-Town Hall is implementing to ensure your calls remain FCC compliant.

Beginning June 30, 2021, the FCC started requiring all voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN protocols to combat fraudulently spoofed auto calls. This article was written to better explain STIR/SHAKEN, as well as the changes Tele-Town Hall is implementing to ensure your calls remain FCC compliant.

Enacted last year, the Federal Communications Commission now requires all voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN protocols to combat fraudulently spoofed auto calls. Tele-Town Hall, the leading provider in telephone-based communication tools, has achieved full compliance with the STIR/SHAKEN protocol, ensuring that phone calls deployed through its platform are legitimate and authenticated.

STIR stands for “secure telephone identity revisited,” and SHAKEN for “signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens.” STIR is the technical protocol and SHAKEN is the framework by which calls can be tracked in the new robocall mitigation database.

The way it works is that STIR/SHAKEN technology ensures that calls traveling through phone networks have their caller ID “signed” as legitimate by originating carriers and validated by other carriers before the calls reach the callee. In short, the technology authenticates a phone call’s origin and makes certain the information on the Caller ID matches.

If this information does not match, call recipients will be warned as the incoming call is received. Depending on the device and network the individual is using, calls might arrive with a green check mark to confirm the number is not illegally spoofed, or the incoming call might be labeled as “Spam Risk” to alert the consumer that the call could be unwanted or illegitimate.

Tele-Town Hall is fully enrolled into the Federal Communications Commission’s Robocall Mitigation Database, and it has partnered with major carriers like AT&T to successfully test the authenticity of our phone numbers.

Tele-Town Hall is also a member of USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group to help identify, investigate, and prosecute the bad actors behind illegal robocalls.

Finally, Tele-Town Hall has participated in the state Attorneys General public/private partnership with the telecommunications industry to share information supporting their efforts to bring robocall criminals to justice.

These actions ensure three things for our customers: (1) phone calls deployed through our system will not be blocked by carriers, (2) calls originating from our system will never be marked as “Spam Risk,” and (3) Tele-Town Hall customers can rest assured that their calls are compliant with the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN framework.

Ultimately, these changes create a healthier ecosystem for telecommunications, and they weed out bad actors in this space. Tele-Town Hall has always been the preeminent leader in call deliverability, and our compliance with STIR/SHAKEN has only increased throughput and engagement with call recipients.

Please note that compliance with STIR/SHAKEN adds an additional step to event set up.

For compliance purposes, Tele-Town Hall® will need to collect certain information from our clients to authenticate with the telecom carriers that the caller ID phone number(s) used belong to the organization conducting the calls.

If you have not received an Authentication Form from a Tele-Town Hall® team member, you may download it from our website and return to stirshaken@teletownhall.com.

By filling out the Authentication Form, you are verifying the phone number(s) provided to Tele-Town Hall belong to the organization sending the calls. As always, a member of the Tele-Town Hall team will be happy to walk you through the process and answer any questions you may have.

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