[VoiceOps] STIR/SHAKEN concerns

[Mary Lou Carey]

Thanks to all who responded! If you would like to reply privately rather 
than publicly just send your message to marylou at backuptelecom.com.

I always like to keep my ear to the ground for what's going on and as 
usual you all are the best sources of information because you see it 
playing out in real time!

MARY LOU CAREY
BackUP Telecom Consulting
Office: 615-791-9969
Cell: 615-796-1111

On 2021-08-19 09:22 PM, Mary Lou Carey wrote:
> I am doing some research for an article so I wanted to ask all of you
> some questions about STIR/SHAKEN and the upcoming implementation in
> late September when traffic will start getting blocked. I personally
> envision the first few months will be a nightmare! Ironically this
> will all hit just as elections are about to take place......how
> convenient! When the industry missed so many steps on the
> implementation phase, there's sure to be things they've missed in this
> phase so let's think ahead so we can address as many problems as we
> can before they happen! I specifically want to focus on the effect the
> changes are having and will have on end user customers. Not only
> residential and small business customers, but enterprise customers
> such as schools, hospitals, banks, political organizations, and other
> industries that use call centers. Please respond to the questions
> below and let me know your thoughts.
> 
> 1. Have you seen any changes in the industry since the June 30th
> implementation date. I have witnessed a few odd routing issues that
> have never happened in the past. I'm not sure if they are a fluke or a
> trend. Have you experienced anything out of the ordinary?
> 
> 2. If your network is partially TDM and partially VOIP, have you
> experienced any issues with either of them? What are your future
> concerns since STIR/SHAKEN does not work with TDM?
> 
> 3. My biggest complaint as a residential consumer is that caller ID no
> longer shows up like it did. Unless I have the number in my phone, I
> only see something along the lines of Scam Likely or a phone number
> with no caller ID. I find this quite irritating since it prevents me
> from determining if its a friend whose carrier hasn't implemented it
> yet or an actual scammer. Anyone else have complaints about what
> information is being passed?
> 
> 4. Are you getting more complaints from your customers about anything
> related to STIR/SHAKEN? What are the nature of the complaints? Is
> there a recurring theme?
> 
> 5. What is your customer's impression of what a Robocall is? My son
> claims he's getting more SCAM calls than he was before but I'm not
> sure he understands what a Robocall is. He may consider any
> advertisement or donation request a robocall, but some things are
> allowed while others aren't. What are you doing to help your customers
> understand what's allowed and what's not allowed?
> 
> 6. If you're hearing from customers about scam calls they are getting,
> are you reporting those calls to anyone? If so, who are you reporting
> them to?
> 
> 6. Criminals always seem to be creative. Have you seen any new methods
> scammers are using to get around STIR/SHAKEN process?
> 
> 7. One of my greatest concerns I have about the September
> implementation is that carriers will get no warning if/when they are
> going to be blocked. I haven't seen anything that states a terminating
> carrier or intermediate carrier has to give a warning muchless
> disclose that they will start blocking another carrier's traffic.
> Maybe there is a hotline to call if your traffic is being blocked
> unjustly, but I haven't heard of any. Have you? Normal routing issues
> are already a nightmare to deal with. Hopefully this will not make it
> worse or just another method for anti-competitive carriers to take out
> their competition!
> 
> 8. The last question leads me to the next one. I know there are some
> carriers using their underlying carrier's certificate so they didn't
> register for the Robocall Mitigation Database. I didn't recommend
> this, but I heard through the grapevine some consultants / underlying
> carriers did. If those who didn't sign up for the Robocall Mitigation
> Database have legitimate traffic shut down, what will happen to all
> their legitimate customers? Will they be out of service until the ITG
> gets around to figuring it out? Has anyone heard of a plan to address
> the impact on consumers displaced by this?
> 
> 9. Has anyone heard of a centralized contact to deal with unjust
> blocking complaints? We all know nothing goes perfectly but I would
> think it will be important for everyone to know what number to call
> should they have problems BEFORE this change is implemented. Have any
> of you heard anything? I haven't!
> 
> 
> 10. I tried to keep my list simple but I would love to hear your
> thoughts on anything I missed.
> 
> 
> Thanks for all your input,
> 
> MARY LOU CAREY
> BackUP Telecom Consulting
> Office: 615-791-9969
> Cell: 615-796-1111
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