Joint Statement by Ian Scott, Chairperson and CEO of the CRTC, and Ajit Pai, Chairman of the FCC, on the First Official Cross-Border Call Using STIR/SHAKEN Caller ID Authentication Framework

Spoofed, scam robocalls are an international problem.  Both Americans and Canadians are being bombarded by these calls, which are too often used to defraud consumers and target some of our most vulnerable communities.  That’s why the FCC and CRTC are committed to combating robocalls by aggressively attacking the use of caller ID spoofing.

Towards that end, this afternoon, we conducted the first official cross-border call using STIR/SHAKEN.*  This new framework enables service providers to authenticate and verify the caller ID information of voice calls made using Internet Protocol.  It’s essentially a digital fingerprint for telephone calls.  When a call between participating providers is transmitted without that digital fingerprint, the receiving phone company will know that the caller ID information is spoofed and can act to protect its customer from scams.

This call between the chairs of the FCC and CRTC demonstrates our joint commitment to the fight against spoofed calls and our focus on protecting Canadian and American consumers.  Spoofing is a challenge that requires broad cooperation and engagement, both domestically and internationally, from many partners including the telecommunications industry.  The timely implementation of STIR/SHAKEN will enhance the security of American and Canadian consumers and give them the peace of mind they demand and deserve when the phone rings.

We look forward to continuing to collaborate as we work to combat the scourge of unwanted robocalls.

*STIR [Secure Telephony Identity Revisited]/SHAKEN [Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs]

Ian Scott, Chairperson and CEO of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

Ajit Pai, Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission