We're helping customers feel more comfortable with answering calls.

TouchTone is dedicated to supporting the telecom industry’s cooperative efforts to seek out and eliminate illegal robocalling; and to help restore call confidence. We have adopted STIR/SHAKEN, industry standards designed to combat spoofed robocalls with Caller ID authentication, across our voice solutions. As a result, our terms and conditions have been updated to ensure that all of our customers are now aware of these new standards. You can view these at https://touchtone.net/Terms.html (General Communication Services - 17. Proposed Information Exchange).

What is STIR/SHAKEN

STIR/SHAKEN is not only designed to help protect consumers against spam robocalls, but to also give our enterprise/business customers the confidence in knowing that their calls are more likely to get answered.

STIR/SHAKEN is a carrier-based Caller ID authentication that requires carriers to digitally sign calls originated by their customers. Its main purpose is to help combat illegal caller ID spoofing, which scammers use to trick people into answering their phones. Spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. With neighborhood spoofing, scammers use a local number for Caller ID from a company or a government agency that you may already know and trust.

How does STIR/SHAKEN work.

STIR stands for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited, and SHAKEN stands for Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs.

Together, they are authentication standards that help to verify that calls come from a real caller ID instead of a spoofed or fake caller ID.

In short, calls traveling through interconnected phone networks would have their caller ID “signed” as legitimate by originating carriers and validated by other carriers before reaching consumers. STIR/SHAKEN uses the same public-key cryptography process that secures e-commerce websites.

Additionally, STIR/SHAKEN helps to identify the source of illegal robocalls in order to reduce their frequency and impact. It gives greater accuracy of caller ID information and allows voice service providers, such as TouchTone, to provide helpful information to their consumers about which calls to answer.

How will STIR/SHAKEN benefit you.

With the rise of robocalls and spoofing scams, more and more consumers are opting not to answer calls from unknown numbers - even if they are indeed legitimate. With STIR/SHAKEN, authentication is built right into our solutions so that customers can feel more confident in answering calls, rather than ignoring or blocking them all together.

Robocall Mitigation Database

In addition to complying with STIR/SHAKEN guidelines, the FCC also requires carriers to register with the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMDB). In addition to being a registered carrier, TouchTone Communications is also actively updating the Reassigned Number Database (RND) which is designed to prevent a consumer from getting unwanted calls intended for someone who has previously held their phone number.

Questions?

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about TouchTone's STIR/SHAKEN adoption, please contact your Authorized TouchTone Agent or e-mail business.support@touchtone.net.