A Clearing House for CLI Validation

It is not every day that you hear the Chief Technical Officer of an African mobile operator saying that he wants telcos to adopt a US anti-spam protocol because it will help to reduce simbox fraud. But nor is it common to find a plethora of telcos arguing that governments should impose standards that would revolutionize the way we determine the origin of voice calls… and then arguing about which of several competing standards should be imposed. Pedro Rabacal of Vodacom Mozambique (pictured, above left) appeared on this week’s RAG TV to explain why a telco serving customers on Africa’s Western coast cares about the standards currently being set by ATIS, a body dominated by US telcos and which has taken the lead in the development of the STIR/SHAKEN protocols for validating the identity of voice calls. However, fellow guest Jeffrey Ross (pictured, below left) offered an even more compelling vision for how identity validation will work across borders. Jeffrey’s new business, 1Route, will provide a clearing house so telcos can adhere to different CLI validation standards in different parts of the world whilst still providing assurance that works across borders.

Jeffrey is both a proud Texan and a passionate internationalist. His mantra is to respect what makes each country special. The USA and Canada are already struggling to make STIR/SHAKEN work across a single border. Persuading all national authorities to follow a common approach is unrealistic, not least because regulators must acknowledge the business priorities and state of network technology within their own markets, and why these will never align to circumstances found elsewhere. 1Route proposes to be the intermediary that will allow all the telcos to ‘talk’ to each other about CLI validation, irrespective of the specific standards they comply with. They recently incorporated in Ireland to emphasize their internationalist credentials. Offering a clearing house for CLI validation is a bold vision and one worth listening to. If you missed the live stream then you can watch the recording below.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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