Neustar, TNS Join Forces to Restore Trust in Enterprise Phone Communications

The proliferation of phone call scams and robocalling has led to a rapid decrease in consumer trust of business phone calls today. With everyone on high alert about scams and identity theft, it’s far too easy to think that any non-recognized phone number that calls will likely be a scammer.

To help enterprises restore trust in the business voice channel, Neustar and Transaction Network Services (TNS) have partnered to offer a solution that vets and authenticates calls.

The new partnership will work via direct network integration with major wireless and wireline carriers and will make it possible to have secure, trusted calls with the over 360 million U.S. consumers using both mobile and landline phone services.

With the new platform, it will be possible to validate and authenticate legitimate calls from companies so they can still have important communications with consumers while still protecting people from phone scams.

“The new platform helps extend the call authentication trust chain and further strengthen the effectiveness of STIR/SHAKEN standards, establishing a strong foundation for branded calling and Rich Call Data (RCD),” said James Garvert, senior vice president of Communications Solutions at Neustar. “We encourage other companies to join us in adopting this approach to help restore trust in the phone channel.”

On the consumer end, the phone calls will come in with information like the brand name, reason for the call and logo on display to further increase the likelihood they’ll answer. This type of branded calling is being used by enterprises to help restore consumer trust in phone calls and also to boost call answer rates and customer engagement levels.

To help authenticate the calls the platform will use a vetting and registration process that aligns with best practices set by Neustar and TNS, which includes enterprises having to validate they have the proper rights to call the number they are dialing. Once the legitimacy of a call is established, a standards-based approach for authentication using solutions like Out-of-Band SHAKEN helps automate the digital validation of calls.

“Leading the initiative of restoring trust to voice is a prime directive for TNS and this partnership,” said Bill Versen, president of the Communications Market for TNS. "Finally, enterprises have a way to verify and authenticate outbound calls through a single point of entry. This unified, cross-carrier platform now sets the stage to enable enterprises to provide consumers the enhanced information that they’re looking for. Successfully combatting call spoofing and robocalls requires collaboration. We’d like to see other companies embrace this approach with us.”

Edited by Erik Linask