On December 31, 2019, the TRACED Act was signed into law requiring Originating Service Providers (OSPs) to implement the ATIS STIR/SHAKEN framework. This framework was created to address caller ID spoofing in order to help limit and block unwanted calls, including illegal robocalls. For the restoration of trust in telephony and to improve call answer rates, enterprises desire A-Level call attestation from their Service Providers. In cases where an OSP and a Telephone Number Service Provider (TNSP) are not the same entity – estimated to be 55% of all Toll-Free Subscribers – OSPs need to authenticate the enterprise’s association with the telephone number. Somos is uniquely positioned to provide data for an OSP’s Authentication Service and the necessary Attestation indication via a scalable, authoritative solution that is ATIS STIR/SHAKEN compliant.
As a proven leader in registry management and data solutions, Somos® has developed a proprietary Toll- Free Number Subscriber Authentication Service known as RealNumber®. This solution works by validating the TNSP for Toll-Free Numbers based on the Responsible Organization (Resp Org) of Record via the TFNRegistry™, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized operations and administrative support system which is used for the creation and maintenance of call processing records for Toll-Free Numbers (TFNs) as well as the source of Toll-Free Number availability and reservation status information. To obtain the required next layer of Toll-Free Number user authentication, Somos is leveraging its relationships with over 350 authoritative TNSP/Resp Orgs to validate Toll-Free Number end-user ownership, as well as Caller Name information associated with the Toll-Free Number. Based on an affirmative response, the requesting Service Provider (OSP) is notified that the Toll-Free Number has been authenticated and that the customer has the right to use the Toll-Free Number. The Service Provider is then able to provide A-Level Attestation.