Anatel, the Brazilian comms regulator, says the technology for assuring consumers about the source of telemarketing calls will begin functioning this month, but customers may not see a difference if their handsets are not upgraded in time. Telecoms news portal Tele.Síntese reports (with my translation beneath):
A adoção do Stir Shaken no Brasil tem apoio de operadoras e setor de telesserviços, mas Anatel ainda tem o desafio de fazer os Google, Apple e o fabricantes de smartphones colaborarem
The adoption of Stir Shaken in Brazil has support from operators and the teleservices sector, but Anatel still has the challenge of getting Google, Apple and smartphone manufacturers to collaborate
The Tele.Síntese article quotes Gustavo Borges of Anatel. Regular readers may remember Gustavo from his appearance on The Communications Risk Show, when he kindly explained Brazil’s unique strategy for reducing the number of spam telemarketing calls. He gave Tele.Síntese a positive assessment of progress whilst highlighting the extent to which the success of a national program based on STIR/SHAKEN technology is reliant on decisions made by big US technology companies.
As redes de telecomunicações estarão, na maioria, aptas a partir de 27 de março. Mas a abrangência efetiva das chamadas identificadas e autenticadas depende dos fabricantes atualizarem os modelos de terminais, sendo grande parte dependente do próprio Android.
The telecommunications networks will, for the most part, be ready from March 27th. But the effective coverage of identified and authenticated calls depends on manufacturers updating terminals, a large part of which depends on Android.
Android dominates the smartphone market in Brazil, whilst Apple’s share hovers a little under 20 percent. Anatel has met with the developers of smartphone operating systems because their support is also required, even though the Brazilian program is voluntary. Brazil has a problem with low rates for connecting calls because ordinary people have grown weary of the number of calls from telemarketing businesses, many of which remain silent and cut off automatically within seconds of the recipient answering. A smartphone could take additional information supplied by telemarketing companies and display it as the phone is ringing, to help users decide if they want to accept the call. However, that will not happen if the user’s phone is running an operating system that has not been adapted to take advantage of the new feed of data.
Brazilian telcos are adopting a radical variant of the STIR/SHAKEN framework. Unlike the better-known version that is mandatory for all IP networks in the USA, Brazil’s call validation is being voluntarily funded by big telemarketing companies who want to increase connection rates for their calls whilst freezing out the bad actors who generate the worst spam. It uses the same technical principle of adding a cryptographically secure digital signature to calls made by telemarketing companies so the origin of the call can be verified at termination, but there is no expectation that these signatures be applied to calls in general. That means Brazil does not require as comprehensive an overhaul of networks to convey the signatures, but handsets still need to run upgraded software to show information about the calls before the recipient picks up.
