The landscape of communications safety sees constant change and Bicom Systems ensures that you can always stay on top of it.
One such change is coming on June 20th, 2025 regarding the STIR/SHAKEN protocols where the FCC wants to take a more proactive approach in combatting robocalls by making each VoIP provider fully responsible for signing outbound calls from their network.
The Bicom Product Suite will make that possible for all VSPs who utilize it, ensuring continued operations in the US market.
What Is STIR/SHAKEN?
STIR/SHAKEN is a set of protocols whose aim is to digitally sign and authenticate caller IDs in an effort to reduce the impact that spam and robocalls make on the everyday customer.
They do this by providing a digital signature to a call through the service provider, one that’s encrypted using a private key.
With Bicom Systems’ PBXware, the process of signing and verifying outgoing calls comes as a built-in implementation that allows VSPs to do both for outbound and inbound calls, enabling them to both authenticate certificates and verify called IDs.
It also facilitates compliance with the FCC’s updated regulations that are being put into effect on June 20th.
The Importance Of Implementing STIR/SHAKEN
As mentioned above, STIR/SHAKEN’s main goal is to reduce the effects of the ever-present nuisance of spam calls, phishing and robocalls by adding an additional layer of security in the form of call attestation.
This should make it easier for the end user to identify potentially fraudulent calls and ignore them, giving them peace of mind and keeping their personal details (and, summarily, their other belongings) safe from the hands of malicious actors.
However, there’s benefit for legitimate businesses here too as the overall level of customer trust will improve with their calls now showing up as verified, improving the rate of successful calls.
What Exactly Are The New Requirements For VoIP Providers?
The newest update in regards to STIR/SHAKEN by the FCC aims to eliminate the use of third-party certificates for call signing and to shift accountability back to the VoIP providers themselves.
To accomplish this, they’re demanding that VSPs must:
- Handle call signing for calls originating from their own networks directly
- Handle the call attestation for all outbound calls
- Obtain an SPC token and their own certificate based on that token
This is done to not only improve the effectiveness of robocall prevention methods, but also to assign full responsibility to the VoIP service providers themselves rather than third parties, ensuring a more accurate VSP legitimacy process.
The VSP must also be properly registered with the STIR/SHAKEN policy administrator.
All of this takes effect on June 20th, 2025, and those found not complying with new regulations in time are likely to be faced with penalties that can go as far as being removed from the Robocall Mitigation Database, and other carriers potentially blocking traffic from them.
Keeping The (Phone) Lines Safe
While STIR/SHAKEN isn’t the be-all and end-all of scam call security, it’s a necessary measure in combatting the threat that it poses, and a step toward the problem’s hopeful elimination in the future.
Bicom Systems firmly believes in the concept of call security and will make sure to do everything in its power to facilitate better call safety at every step.
Get in touch with us and let’s secure a safer telephony experience for your customers, together.