STIR/SHAKEN may create a ‘two-tiered’ wireless system: ISCC

OTTAWA — The CRTC's efforts to work with telecom companies to implement a STIR/SHAKEN call identification protocol to cut down on fraud calls will have the unwitting effect of crowding out smaller players from the telecom market, the Internet Society's Canadian chapter president Matthew Gamble told the House of Commons industry committee Thursday. The way the STIR/SHAKEN framework is designed, Gamble says, "limit the ability to fully attest to the identity of a call to the phone company which owns the number. While this sounds logical, ownership of phone numbers is not as simple as it sounds." "There are over 1,200 entities registered with the CRTC as resellers of telecommunications services, which are generally TSPs that operate without owning any of their own phone numbers, instead relying on wholesale access agreements with larger providers," Gamble told the committee. The result will result in something of a "two-tiered" communication system, where customers move to carriers who can effectively implement the protocol, and away from those who cannot, Gamble said. "The view so far seems to be that we should implement with the big players, and then let the small players catch up later," Gamble told MPs. The House industry committee heard testimony on Tuesday from CRTC commissioner Ian Scott, who said that fraud in the communications system is "fundamentally a technology problem, and each time we close a door, somebody finds a new opening and comes up with a new approach.” “So this will never go away. It’s about controlling and dealing with the biggest problems,” Scott said on Tuesday. Elsewhere in the hearing, Public Interest Advocacy Centre executive director John Lawford called for the CRTC to have a public hearing devoted to the issue of fraud. "I don't know why they don't want to do a public inquiry," Lawford said in response to a question from Conservative MP Tracy Gray. "I think they want the industry to solve it quickly, but I don't understand why that's done because normally fraud is not helped by obscurity. It's better to discuss it in public. And then secondly, having rules that are done in an open and transparent process usually are better rules," Lawford said. The committee is currently undertaking a study on fraud in the telecommunications system. Back in December, the CRTC asked telecom providers to implement the STIR/SHAKEN protocol, and do so by Sept. 30 of this year. The STIR/SHAKEN technology is a different program than the call-blocking program that telecom companies were asked to implement in December of last year, which involves blocking calls from numbers that don't correspond to established numbering formats, such as 000-000-0000. STIR/SHAKEN protocol, on the other hand, will let the calls come through, but with some kind of identification marker attached. Several telecom providers and trade groups have asked for the September deadline to be delayed. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

STIR/SHAKEN may create a ‘two-tiered’ wireless system: ISCC

News | March 12, 2020

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STIR/SHAKEN may create a ‘two-tiered’ wireless system: ISCC

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