TELUS completes successful testing of Neustar’s STIR/SHAKEN solution

Neustar, a trusted, neutral provider of real-time information services, and TELUS, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, announced a successfully completed test of Neustar’s Certified Caller software suite deployed in TELUS’s NFV lab environment to authenticate and verify calls using the STIR/SHAKEN protocol.

This significant milestone supports the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) request of telecommunications service providers to deploy caller ID authentication and verification for voice over internet (VoIP) calls to reduce illegal caller ID spoofing.

“TELUS is proactively taking steps toward the adoption of call authentication solutions and the implementation of STIR/SHAKEN across our network will fight back against fraudsters and help protect Canadians,” said TELUS Technology Fellow Richard Polishak.

“Neustar has been instrumental in helping TELUS integrate the available components of the STIR/SHAKEN protocol, test them in our environment and accelerate our planning process.”

With consumers losing millions every year to fraudsters who deceive them by spoofing or changing caller ID, regulators such as the CRTC and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have asked voice call providers to step up the battle by adopting STIR/SHAKEN.

STIR (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited) is a set of technical standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to certify the identity of originating calls and SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) is a framework developed by the Alliance of Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) that focuses on implementation of STIR within IP-based service provider networks.

STIR and SHAKEN are recognized as the most viable way to provide a measure of trust in the displayed caller name and number by authenticating the calling number.

“We fully support the adoption of STIR/SHAKEN as a means to restore trust in calls,” said Neustar General Manager and Vice President of Caller ID Solutions James Garvert.

“Neustar has played a key role in defining these industry standards and is committed to vast industry adoption to stop call scams and illegal and unwanted robocalls. Neustar’s Certified Caller is a full STIR/SHAKEN solution that enables service providers to meet the standards to authenticate and verify the caller telephone identity between originating and terminating carriers and detect and warn subscribers of spoofing.”

Neustar is also the exclusive operator of the ATIS Robocalling Testbed and has conducted industry interoperability testing with more than 15 real-world STIR/SHAKEN implementations with Neustar’s commercial implementation. Recognizing declining trust in calls and the impact on consumers and business, Neustar was first to market with a testable STIR/SHAKEN solution.

Neustar now offers a set of integrated, market-leading solutions for service providers and enterprises, including robocall mitigation, call authentication, caller ID for mobile and landline, caller name optimization and branded call display.