news & events

As a strong indicator of the industry’s commitment to fighting illegal robocalling, the Secure Telephone Identity Policy Administrator (STI-PA) has 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.

Americans were inundated with more than 58 billion illegal robocalls in 2019, plus 4.5 billion spam text messages. Consumers are so fed up that when they see a call from an unfamiliar or unidentified number, they let it drop into voicemail 76 percent of the time. In this Connections Magazine article, iconectiv’s Mike O’Brien explores the telecom ecosystem battle against illegal robocallers and SMS fraudsters, and why it’s essential to restore consumer confidence in legitimate calls.

Texting is catching on as the preferred way to contact businesses. Texting is widely available, 93% of people consider text a trusted communication, and 85% of people prefer sending a message to a business to get information about products and services. In this article, Black Swan Telecom Journal interviews iconectiv’s Michael Gilbert on the company’s text-enabling B2C communications program and why text is increasingly preferred over voice.

Technology is offering news ways for individuals who feel isolated in the virtual world to find solace. With Text for Humanity, what started as an idea to combat societal issues was transformed into a messaging switchboard for well-wishers. Texting has become a personal way to get in contact with other people. Using SMS short codes—a five to six-digit phone number that is used mainly for mass communication—over 100,000 messages have been sent in over 90 countries.

In this Black Swan Telecom Journal webinar, iconectiv’s Principal Solutions Engineer Director John Haraburda joins a group of fraud control experts to provide a virtual advanced course on tactics and some of the latest thinking and solutions for taming Wangiri fraud. The webinar explores a new variation of Wangiri, where the fraudster’s invitation to call is done through the web.

Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s biggest brands are currently exploring Rich Communication Services (RCS) to provide consumers with a deeper, more interactive experience than that offered by traditional SMS texting. At PACE ACX Virtual 2020, iconectiv CTO Chris Drake will describe how brand and logo verification and authentication can and must be part of the foundation for RCS, enabling legitimate businesses to protect their customer experience, reputation and bottom line.

Today, billions of people are connected across voice, text and data communication channels every single day. Increasing robocalls and sophisticated financial scams amidst legitimate communications make it more difficult for businesses to efficiently reach and serve their consumers. Meanwhile, consumer trust is at risk—even for well-established brands. Read more from Vanilla Plus on how iconectiv is ensuring that consumers and businesses communicate with confidence and at industry scale.