Cory Gunther
Robocalls are a multi-year problem that could finally die later this month. Hopefully slowing the barrage of fake healthcare, car warranty, Amazon account, or social security scammer calls people receive daily. We’re talking about the stir/shaken technology that providers have to implement by June 30th, 2021.
Yes, the FCC is finally trying to end robocalls by forcing solutions like STIR/SHAKEN. By the end of the month, every major voice provider in the US, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and even cable providers, will have to implement the spam-preventing technology.
CNET reports that phone users in the United States have already received around 22 billion robocalls in the first five months of 2021, and that number could grow to 52 billion by the end of the year. Ridiculous!
So what is stir/shaken exactly? Well, “Stir” stands for “secure telephone identity revisited” and “Shaken” for “signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens.” It’s a system and protocol aimed at curbing all those awful scammers. With the new “shaken” framework, a new database can track calls, and each one goes through a new network verification process. Essentially, every call has its caller ID “signed” and verified before it ever reaches you.
Unfortunately, this will only slow down all of the illegal calls Americans get daily. More specifically, the ones that spoof local area codes and familiar numbers, which most people are more likely to pick up. We’ll probably still get junk phone calls, but the number won’t be local, so it’s easier to spot, and ultimately, ignore.
Unless a voice provider is a tiny company, everyone from AT&T to Verizon must implement this new technology no later than June 30th. So hopefully, come July 1st, we’ll get fewer calls than before. One can hope, at least.
via CNET
