USTA Robocall Workshop

“Thanks, again, to the USTA and to AT&T for this opportunity.

"I’m here representing Transaction Network Services, or TNS, located nearby in Reston, VA.  Their analytics product, Call Guardian, is available for both wireless and wireline. TNS provides the analytics for 3 of the 5 top US wireless providers, and looks at roughly 1 billion signaling and routing network events every day and uses this versus crowd-sourced  feedback, which they also receive but don’t depend on, to make  determinations about caller reputation in real time.

"Whichever industry you represent here today, we’re on the same page because we’re only as valuable as our data is accurate. 

"Kevin asked TNS to participate in this panel in particular because they’ve had a dispute resolution process in place for two years now. So, I’d like to share what we’ve learned about this topic:

"1. We all need a vetting  process. Scaling the vetting process is a significant challenge. We must be careful whom we trust, as we all know that bad actors are continually evolving to game whatever we put  in place.

"2. We’ve received several requests to whitelist telephone numbers and am here to explain why that’s not as simple as it may sound. 

"a. Is the entity making the request for TNs that are all compliant with the TCPA and Truth in Caller ID act? I’d like to thank Aaron Foss for putting it so bluntly; I’ll say it in my own way – transparency is the trajectory we’re on.

"b. Is your number being spoofed by a bad actor engaged in scam calls? Obviously, we can’t create holes for bad actors and whitelisting is one way we might do that.

"Final note, as many others have noted today, it’s still early days here.  We’re all evolving. I’m grateful for the opportunity to hear from you today and to learn.”