As a strong indicator of the industry’s commitment to fighting illegal robocalling, the Secure Telephone Identity Policy Administrator (STI-PA) today registered its 50th authorized service provider (SP). SPs must be approved to secure access to the certificates needed to sign and validate calls to mitigate caller ID spoofing. The addition of a 50th SP takes place with the FCC mandate for service providers to implement more than seven months away.
In December 2019, the Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA), introduced STIR/SHAKEN by launching the STI-Policy Administrator. The STI-GA provides a venue for service provider collaboration in establishing the overall governance to ensure that only approved service providers are enrolled in the SHAKEN ecosystem. The STI-GA confirms which service providers are authorized to request ce
rtificates and coordinates with STI-GA-approved Certificate Authorities to issue them. The STIR/SHAKEN signature communicates to the terminating service provider the telephone number is not spoofed. That service provider can then pass along to its customer information about the call’s trustworthiness. A call signed with a STIR/SHAKEN certificate can convey to consumers that the call they are receiving is truly from the number shown on the caller ID.
Not only are 50 service providers now participating in this important ecosystem, but the STI-GA has also recently approved its fifth Certificate Authority, the entities that manage the assignment of the digital certificates used by service providers to authenticate calls. This broad industry participation is critical to advancing the industry’s collective progress in mitigating fraudulent use of the voice network.
As participation in the STIR/SHAKEN ecosystem is voluntary, the 50 service providers signed up serves as proof of the industry’s collective commitment to coordinated action in combatting fraudulent robocalls and caller ID spoofing.
About the STI-GA
The Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI
-GA) is the industry-led effort to support the timely deployment of the STIR/SHAKEN protocol and framework. The STI-GA Board consists of representatives from the following stakeholders:
- Chair – Linda Vandeloop, AT&T
- Vice Chair – Glenn Clepper, Charter Communications; appointed by NCTA – The Internet & Television Association
- Clinton Lee, Jackson Energy Authority; appointed by the America’s Communications Association
- Nathan Sutter, Nex-Tech Wireless; appointed by the Competitive Carriers Association
- Indra Chalk, T-Mobile; appointed by CTIA
- Greg Rogers, Bandwidth; appointed by INCOMPAS
- Dave Frigen, Wabash Communications; appointed by NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association
- Chris Oatway, Verizon; appointed by US Telecom
- Gunnar Halley, Microsoft; appointed by the VON Coalition
- Michael Starkey, QSI Consulting, Inc.; appointed by Western Telecommunications Alliance and TEXALTEL
- Tim Kagele, Comcast
- Darah Franklin, Google
Learn more about the work of the STI-GA at www.atis.org/sti-ga/. The STI-GA operates under the auspices of ATIS.
About ATIS
As a leading technology and solutions development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) brings together the top global ICT companies to advance the industry’s business priorities. ATIS’ 150 member companies are currently working to address 5G, Smart Cities, illegal robocall mitigation, wireless emergency alerts, artificial intelligence-enabled networks, distributed ledger/blockchain technology, cybersecurity, IoT, emergency services, quality of service, billing support, operations, and much more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle – from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open source solutions, and interoperability testing.
ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a founding Partner of the oneM2M global initiative, a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, visit www.atis.org. Follow ATIS on Twitter and LinkedIn.