Articles from iconectiv

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As the federal government seeks to bring broadband to underserved rural areas via the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, iconectiv published a new use case detailing how an industry-standard framework can streamline the collecting, verifying and sharing of information for BEAD-funded projects.

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Insert after "Who" additional panelists and moderator for "Collaborating to Fight Back Against the Global Scam Threat” session.

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Businesses relying on telephone outreach face a critical challenge: ensuring compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) while maintaining efficiency and cost-effectiveness. To help navigate the evolving contact data and regulatory landscapes, iconectiv today announced enhancements to TruOps® TRA Telemarketing Data Source (TDS), the ultimate solution for complying with the TCPA and optimizing outbound voice-based consumer engagement strategies.

The Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA) today announced the approval of agreements with ATIS and iconectiv to continue helping lead the U.S. SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) ecosystem. SHAKEN provides a mechanism for service providers (SPs) to help consumers evaluate the accuracy of displayed Caller ID information.

In a country where more than 44 million adults age 20 years and older have some level of hearing loss, Internet-based Telecommunications Relay Services (iTRS) serves as a vital public service, giving individuals who are hard of hearing or require speech communications assistance the ability to communicate with friends, family, businesses and government agencies via landline and mobile phones. To ensure the accurate routing of these phone calls, iconectiv has been awarded a contract renewal and will continue operating the Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Numbering Directory for iTRS services on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – a role they have been serving since 2019.

In an increasingly complex digital landscape, where cyber threats are evolving daily, organizations worldwide recognize October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Reaffirming its own unwavering commitment to maintaining a strong security posture across its platforms and solutions, iconectiv continues to prioritize security as a core pillar of its operations, ensuring that businesses can trust the company as a reliable and secure trusted communications partner.

Communications service providers (CSPs) in Argentina port around 9,000 telephone numbers every day. A new agreement with the Argentina Number Portability Committee allows any company doing business in the country to access porting information for mitigating fraud, assessing risk, flagging money laundering risks and optimizing business processes.

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In a world where trust is fragile, identity is priceless and fraud lurks in darkness, there is a critical need for skilled experts ready to take on a wide range of challenges plaguing the global communications ecosystem.

With mobile phones and phone numbers now serving as the primary way for more than 3 billion people worldwide to identify themselves when buying and selling online, conducting financial transactions, opening accounts, verifying their age and authenticating themselves to contact centers, fraudsters are now using these strings of digits and their associated devices as one of their prime attack vectors. Nearly half of all fraud reported to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission starts with a text message or a phone call.

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Approximately 600,000 telephone numbers are ported every day in the U.S. Those changes directly affect virtually every aspect of a CSP and Providers of Telecom Related Services (PTRS) operations—including routing, rating, roaming, invoicing, network maintenance and regulatory reporting. Porting also directly affects customer satisfaction and brand loyalty because consumers and businesses expect every call and message to be routed correctly.

As online payment fraud costs are projected to skyrocket to $91 billion by 2028, businesses are seeking innovative solutions to protect their bottom line while enhancing customer satisfaction. The answer lies in the ubiquitous mobile phone number, which has become the preferred digital identity method for consumers and businesses globally. The role of mobile phone numbers for digital identity and their overall impact on the customer experience are the focus of the newly released iconectiv Market Brief: boost customer experience and revenue with authoritative mobile phone number data.

In its continuing commitment to ensure a trusted communications ecosystem, iconectiv announced that Steve Tang, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the SIP Forum.

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The market size for global digital identity solutions reached USD 27.51 billion in 2022 with projections indicating a steady expansion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2% from 2023 to 2030, and for good reason: With modern society’s digital transformation, the spotlight on protecting and verifying the digital identity has intensified since individuals’ personas are increasingly intertwined with their online presence. Digital identity is the focus of the newly released iconectiv Market Brief: Instantly confirm the identity of mobile numbers for financial services, health care and e-commerce transactions.

By 2025, North America will be home to more than 335,000 5G small cells as Communications Service Providers (CSPs) launch and expand fixed wireless access (FWA) services such as residential broadband and enterprise edge computing. That trend is creating major immediate and long-term revenue opportunities for data center operators and commercial real estate owners — but only if they speak the same language as their prospective CSP customers.

With mobile phones expected to become the primary source of identity for billions of people this year, phone numbers are the logical way for businesses to contact and authenticate customers. They’re also a prime target for exploitation. Sophisticated fraudsters target phone numbers, leading to fake accounts and purchases that undermine businesses’ bottom lines and erode consumer trust.

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Roughly 42 million rural Americans are stuck in the digital divide, where they can’t access telehealth, online education, e-commerce, remote work, streaming entertainment and other services available to people in suburbs and cities. Although government funding and private investment is available to help fund rural broadband buildouts, a host of business and technological challenges continue to undermine service provider initiatives to close the digital divide.

On the heels of announcing advancements to its TruOps™ Common Language® platform, iconectiv today announced that the company and its industry-leading platform have been recognized with several Merit Awards for Telecom and Wireless. The Merit Awards, an independent awards program that recognizes global industries and the markets they serve, has awarded the Common Language platform with six prestigious honors – all of which underpin iconectiv’s commitment to facilitating seamless interconnection among communications service providers (CSPs), equipment vendors and the telecom ecosystem.

The pervasiveness of digitization across consumers’ personal and professional lives—from mobile banking to healthcare to e-commerce—is highly dependent on their digital identity. It has also created a critical need for solutions that protect consumers and businesses. At the epicenter of digital identity lies the phone number.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are consistently looking for ways to capitalize on growth opportunities while simultaneously driving operational efficiencies and cost savings. With evolving market expectations—for example, 5G demand is forecasted to grow approximately 60% by 2030—an increasing amount of expenditure is required for network equipment and planning for 5G and other build-outs. As a result, iconectiv, a trusted partner of the communications industry, has enhanced TruOps™ Common Language® with two features: a mobile app, and a network view feature.

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Network element providers (NEPs) and equipment manufacturers are critical to helping communication service providers (CSPs) meet consumer and enterprise demand for mobile, fiber and other telecom services. As a trusted partner, the role of NEPs goes beyond simply providing switches, base stations and other equipment CSPs rely on them to maximize operational efficiency, streamline asset management, ensure billing accuracy and quickly capitalize on emerging technology and marketplace trends.

As a key driver of choice, competition and innovation, mobile number portability (MNP) enables consumers and businesses to keep their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network service provider to another. India is a prime example of these benefits. Since 2011, MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India (MITS), an iconectiv subsidiary, has completed over 400 million port-in requests across the country’s 580 million subscribers throughout Zone 2.

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iconectiv, a trusted partner of the communications industry, has been recognized for its steadfast pursuit of maintaining a solid, trusted foundation for voice calls. In recognition of that work, TMC, a global, integrated media company, has selected TruReach™ Certify as a 2023 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award winner.

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Resellers of network elements and equipment play a critical role in the telecom ecosystem by supplying communication service providers (CSPs) with the infrastructure they need to meet demand for mobile, fiber and other telecom services. To fulfill that demand, resellers need to determine the model, capabilities, version and other key attributes of each piece of equipment quickly and accurately.

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Good news for consumers, businesses and the communication service providers (CSPs) that serve them: Illegal robocalls are trending down. Juniper Research estimates that the robocall mitigation framework in the US—STIR/SHAKEN—has reduced the year-on-year growth of fraudulent losses to illegal robocalling in the region by 85% between 2022 and 2023. And by 2025, fraudulent losses arising from robocalling are anticipated to decline for the first time in North America. This trend is steadily restoring consumer trust in caller ID, making consumers more inclined to answer important calls from their doctor, school, insurance provider and other legitimate businesses rather than letting them drop into voicemail.

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As service providers roll out new technology (like 5G) and densify their networks, it is critical that they have full visibility into the location, assets and capabilities of all available infrastructure and network sites. Companies that own and operate towers and network sites can help service providers do this—essentially optimizing their network planning and operation—by providing clear and accurate site information using the standardized industry data widely used by the telecom ecosystem.

Service providers expanding and densifying their networks are increasingly turning to the wholesale fiber market for cell site backhaul, additional capacity in the core network and interconnection to other service providers. To secure a share of this opportunity, wholesale fiber companies need to make ordering and fulfillment easy and error-free for their service provider customers.

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Continuing its commitment to offering consumers and businesses choice and convenience in switching telecom service providers, Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) in Greece has concluded a new contract with iconectiv, an authoritative partner of the global communications industry, to provide the iconectiv® TruNumber Portability Clearinghouse service in the country for another five years.

Consumers and businesses depend on voice calls and SMS not only to communicate, but also to enable security safeguards such as two-factor authentication for bank accounts. That’s why fraudsters also look to voice and SMS for illegal robocalling, smishing, account takeovers, PBX hacking, one-ring scams and other types of communication fraud.

Telephone number portability drives innovation and competition by giving consumers and businesses the freedom to choose the communication provider that best fits their needs. On September 20, 2022, Argentina became one of only a handful of countries in the world with both fixed and mobile number portability.

Origin-based rating (OBR) is an emerging global trend affecting every Network Service Provider that originates or terminates international voice traffic. Implemented quickly and correctly, OBR can be a major, much needed new source of revenue while also giving Network Service Providers the tools they need to support anti-fraud and call-blocking initiatives, including verified caller ID.

New data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates that consumers lost more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, a 70% increase from 2020. According to the report, more than 2.8 million consumers reported fraud, with imposter scams the most prevalent.

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In a society driven by mobile communication, the demand for telephone numbers continues to increase. Considered to be a finite resource, the use of these 10-digit telephone numbers extends beyond business and consumer phones to IoT and machine-to-machine devices and more. As a result, efficiently allocating and conserving these telephone numbers is critical, and a main focus of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Industry Numbering Committee (INC).

The way in which consumers and businesses communicate—and how societies operate—is a key reason why companies are anticipated to spend $2.8 trillion on digital transformation globally by 2025.

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In a move to further expand its voice fraud protection solutions, AB Handshake is leveraging intelligent numbering data from iconectiv® TruNumber Protect platform, which enables service providers to block many types of telephone fraud and suspicious activity, including one-ring scams, PBX hacking, international revenue share fraud (IRSF), interconnection-related revenue leakage and fraudulent roaming calls to premium-rate services.

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With the lion’s share of consumers (86%) associating businesses with a toll-free number as higher quality companies, it is paramount to protect the integrity of these trusted numbers. Fortunately, with the most recent advancement in the nation’s robocall mitigation efforts, telephone calls made from toll-free numbers are now eligible to be included in the nation’s Calling Number Verification Service.

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When consumers interact with a business, odds are high that it will involve a toll-free number. More than 40 million are currently in use by retailers, colleges and other organizations — including vanity numbers such as 1-800-FLOWERS, which have a 44.9% higher recall rate than web addresses.

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Trust is the foundation of communications but it’s hard to come by due to the relentless global scourge of illegal robocalls, spam text and fraud, which costs service providers $29 billion in lost revenues each year. And since fraudulent robocalls are expected to cost consumers $40 billion in 2022, it’s not surprising that they won’t answer calls or texts from phone numbers they don’t recognize. This makes it difficult, expensive and sometimes impossible for hospitals, schools and other legitimate organizations to reach consumers.

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Consumers are inundated with robocalls: around 48 billion in 2020, according to the FCC. Of those, approximately 45% are illegal robocalls, which may help explain why 71% of consumers no longer answer their telephones. As part of the industry’s concerted effort to address this issue, the United States has implemented the STIR/SHAKEN framework to provide phone companies with a powerful new framework for weeding out illegal robocalls and other spam.

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Consumers get frustrated when their call is answered with an automated message explaining that they’re twelfth in line for the next agent, or that their estimated wait time is 20 minutes. To avoid this frustration—and the potential for lost sales—many retailers, government agencies and other organizations now provide people with the option of leaving a callback number instead of staying on hold.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is good for businesses, consumers and the industry because it provides customers with choices, which drives competition and innovation. India is a prime example of these benefits. Since 2011, MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions India (MITS), an iconectiv subsidiary, has managed over 300 million port requests across its 575 million subscribers throughout Zone 2.

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