Providing businesses with essential compliance tools to earn trust with customers and prospects
The telecommunications industry is in the process of implementing regulatory changes which CallTrackingMetrics is committed to supporting as part of a global effort to combat fraudulent spam calls and text messages.
The first of these regulatory changes is STIR/SHAKEN which has been put in place by the FCC to combat spoofed robocalls with caller ID authentication. The second regulation is Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code, (A2P 10DLC) messaging. For further clarification, 10DLC is a standard 10 digit phone number. This is the latest offering from U.S. carriers to support texting for business while protecting end-users from unwanted messages.
These two regulatory changes require businesses to obtain a trust score by creating a business profile. This trust score provides the underlying carrier with information to verify that the communications are not spam. The business registration process to obtain your trust score is now available for most businesses through the CallTrackingMetrics Trust Center.
Read on for more information on what these changes mean for your business, and how to maintain compliance.
These regulatory changes are industry wide so businesses will need to register their phone numbers for the business profile to obtain a trust score for both STIR/SHAKEN and A2P. For A2P messaging, there are additional steps that are needed to register your Brand and campaign/use case (additional fees will apply) which the carriers will need to approve. Campaign approval can take up to a week. As soon as additional information is released from the carriers we will post updates here.
With these industry changes, part of the process is to implement an attestation trust score so the underlying carrier can verify the calls and SMS outbound traffic from companies is not spam, robocalls, or fraudulent.
These changes only impact US customers for now, but we expect other regions to follow suit in the future. That being said, if you are outside the United States and have purchased a US phone number number you will need to register that number.
If you are using call queues to route your inbound calls to a receiving number, you will need to register. If you are only forwarding inbound calls from a tracking number to a receiving number, you technically do not need to register that number. Please note this is subject to change in the future.
Normally the Attestation Trust Scores will be delivered within a week.
Business attestation scoring is based on Business Type, longevity, address, Tax ID or DUNS number. Note: the longer a company is in business and once registered the score could go up according to the carriers.
No fee is involved for initial registration of your business profile.
Yes, by paying a fee to a 3rd party verification provider they can do an independent check and provide you a Trust Score. The fee normally runs anywhere from $40.00 to $55.00.
Yes, You will need to register the phone number for both STIR/SHAKEN and if you are using A2P messaging you will need to add your Brand, campaign type, and a sample message which will be submitted to the carrier for approval.
When registering your business for STIR/SHAKEN, we recommend you use the information included on your W9. You should enter the exact information as it appears on your W9 form including the legal business name (as spelled on the W9, including capitalization and punctuation), the business address (as spelled on the W9, including capitalization, punctuation, suite number, etc.), and all other information that is on the W9 that is needed for the registration form.
We also have seen more successful registrations when you use your EIN (Tax ID). Your EIN number is a 9 digit number (no letters) you can find on your tax documentation.
You are now able to edit existing submissions. You can also create a new compliance using the “Add Compliance” button in the upper right hand corner of the Trust Center, and resubmit.
The new regulation for A2P and STIR/SHAKEN will require you submit this information for each business or sub-account within your CallTrackingMetrics account. CallTrackingMetrics is working to streamline this process for our agency customers and will share additional information as it becomes available.
SHAKEN is an acronym standing for Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs. SHAKEN is a software based verification process designed to significantly reduce robocalls as well as ensuring caller ID displays are valid protecting consumers. The FCC’s recent report states that unwanted calls are their number one consumer complaint. Caller ID spoofing leads to fraud.
Yes, SHAKEN was created by the task force IP-NNI working for ATIS-SIP Forum. IP-NNI stands for “Internet Protocol – Network to Network Interface”. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) formed the working group STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) to develop policies for carriers. STIR in turn created SHAKEN which is why it is typically referred to as STIR/SHAKEN.
Based on a business profile created by the company there are multiple factors that drive an attestation trust score. Trust scores are derived from the longevity of the business, tax ID or DUNS number, physical address, and verified company contacts. Based on the attestation trust score, calls that are being initiated by a company and delivered to the carrier’s consumer phone, validation will be provided in the following (e.g. Spam, Scam Likely, or “valid company name” ).
Beginning June 30, 2021 STIR-SHAKEN initiative will be implemented by United States telecommunications providers. This will enhance consumer confidence and trust when accepting calls.
That will depend on your provider, and telephone manufacturer as to what caller ID display will show (e.g. Spam, Scam Likely, or “valid company name” ).
Once your business registration is approved in CallTrackingMetrics, we will be able to pass a STIR/SHAKEN token to the recipient’s phone provider on every outbound call. This STIR/SHAKEN token has become the new standard that all phone providers are using to identify what is or isn’t a “spam risk”. Having the token applied SHOULD help right away. The token registration will be automatically applied to any new or existing numbers within the account. This is the recommended best practice today for all of our customers using outbound dialing.
Please note that the “Spam Risk” label is being applied by your contacts phone company. It’s hard for us to say with 100% certainty they don’t have specific numbers flagged as spam in a database of their own for some reason and won’t keep flagging them as spam even after the registration is approved.
At this time, CallTrackingMetrics is not aware of any additional fees to consumers. However, the industry is still defining guidelines. Agencies may incur fees when challenging their attestation trust score.
Yes, the business attestation trust score generated from these calls will be vetted to ensure validity of the company’s identity.
At this time carriers are still defining rules and attestation criteria. There is no clear plan for calls with low attestation scores. However, it is possible that low attestation scored calls will not be delivered. As information becomes available we will post updates here.
Once an attestation trust score is established, over time businesses will gain additional credibility and their attestation score should increase with the carriers. However, low answers rates and short call duration calls (Under 60 seconds) could contribute to lowering a company’s attestation trust score causing calls not to be delivered.
Yes, if you have established a high attestation trust score the call should be delivered. The higher the attestation score, the more likely the call will be delivered to the end user. Should a company’s attestation score drop, they will most likely see a decline in call delivery.
The requirements needed for the A2P 10DLC service are as follows:
Yes, you will want to register this as Conversation Messaging which is a Declared Use Case. Any text message sent from Calltrackingmetrics is considered an A2P message.
No, registration will be available entirely through CallTrackingMetrics. CallTrackingMetrics and our partners have integrated directly with The Campaign Registry (TCR) to facilitate registration for customers.
No, if you already are using 10 digit phone numbers for sending messages there is no need to buy new numbers. However, you will need to register the existing phone numbers for each campaign type to ensure your message will be delivered.
In order to register you need to have your Business Profile approved, register your phone numbers for STIR/SHAKEN and assign the 5 phone numbers you intend to use. For more information on Business Registration please refer to the following: https://www.calltrackingmetrics.com/support/numbers/number-management/buy-numbers/business-registration-stir-shaken-a2p-10dlc-text-message-campaign-registration/
Yes, it is recommended that if you are using high-volume MMS campaigns, then leveraging a short code is still the best option.
These changes do not directly affect dedicated short codes along with Toll-Free numbers.
Effective June 1, 2021 Shared Short codes will be prohibited for use for high-volume messages
Yes, they can be under one company name under Declared Use Case. Please note, any text message sent from CallTrackingMetrics is considered an A2P message
TCPA, or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act are rules and regulations put in place by the The Federal Communications Commission that went into effect in 1992.
STIR/SHAKEN is an expansion of TCPA, and is being put in place to instill calling confidence with customers. This set of industry standards is designed to reduce spam robocalls, prevent the “spoofing” of Caller ID data and help businesses improve voice security
Robocalls are prerecorded or autodialed calls made to your landline or cell phone, usually when you have not given permission for the caller to contact you. They are often made by telemarketers, who are callers contacting you to sell a product or service, usually unsolicited. Robocalls can also come from other entities besides telemarketers, such as debt collectors.
This is the page the FCC maintains regarding how businesses can sign up to get subscriptions for the FCC’s do not call lists. Businesses can purchase subscriptions for specific area codes or for all area codes. (See Subscribing To Area Codes section)
The below fees will apply to both registered and unregistered traffic toward users on T-Mobile (including Sprint). Starting October 1, 2021, T-Mobile will increase carrier fees for unregistered traffic to $0.004 per SMS segment (rather than $0.003 for registered) and $0.013 per MMS message (rather than $0.01 for registered).
U.S. telecommunications providers may assess fees for non-compliant A2P traffic, and CallTrackingMetrics will pass these fees onto you. To date, T-Mobile is the first U.S. telecommunications provider to announce non-compliance fees for violations of T-Mobile’s Code of Conduct. Twilio will update these guidelines accordingly if/when additional U.S. telecommunications providers announce non-compliance fees.
T-Mobile non-compliance fees are as follows:
UPDATE Dec 1, 2021 Due to changes in the Canadian carrier ecosystem, the carrier pass through fees have been updated for some Canadian carriers, effective December 1, 2021. These carrier fees are charged as a per message segment. The updated fees are as follows:
There are several ways to contact our support team. If you are inside the CallTrackingMetrics platform, you may select the “Chat with Support” option. Additionally, you may reach our team by phone at (443) 432-2896 or create a support ticket by sending an email to info@calltrackingmetrics.com.
To help keep customers informed, we are sending regular emails related to these regulatory changes and proactively keeping this web page up-to-date. We recommend reviewing these resources often, as information is subject to change.