Telecommunication fraud – known to most people as “spam calls” – has become a huge problem for everyone. Private consumers are bombarded with numerous unwanted calls; brands face a growing degradation in reliability from their customers; and telco operators have to deal with situations where their network is being bypassed by an unauthorized third party. 

Monnan Miah

Monnan Miah

“While spam calls may be a way of generating traffic, this phenomenon is slowly destructing the value of traditional telecommunications in the eyes of the public, which in turn affects how it is perceived by organizations,” explains Monnan Miah, Head of Global Services at Toku. 

In fact, the phone number is the most widely used identification method in the world today, connecting it directly to a brand’s reputation. 

“As soon as people lose trust in the authenticity of that ID, many companies will start moving to other communication channels that might be perceived as more secure, but actually have other disadvantages, like the fact that they are unregulated and less ubiquitous,” Miah notes. 

While some areas already have active fraud-prevention frameworks, APAC does not. Realizing that fighting fraud is a mutual effort, Toku decided to take the regional lead and join the AB Handshake community: a cross-industry solution allowing operators to validate the authenticity of every single call as they occur in real-time. 

A Mutual Problem – A Collaborative Solution

If both network operators and consumers worldwide suffer from telco fraud, the most natural thing would be fighting it together. So, what’s stopping them? 

“When it comes to telecommunications, each country uses a different type of technology or interprets the technology in a different way. This makes it impossible to have a consistent, cross-border way of handling fraud,” Miah shares. 

“Different countries have tackled the problem from different angles, but none of them has actually used technology-first focused approach to do it,” he explains. 

“That’s where newfound operators like Toku can help. In partnering with AB Handshake, we’re helping both our own community and other communities worldwide. It’s a mutual effort.”

How Does It Work?

Simply put: the AB Handshake solution enables any operator to validate every call, removing the risks of spoofing. 

One of the biggest advantages of AB Handshake is the ability to integrate with both old and new technology, whether it’s PSTN, VoIP, or communication APIs. 

Another advantage has to do with the community aspect.  

“There are other solutions tackling fraud in different ways, but none of them offers the openness of that data and validity of information that stem from being a part of a closed community, Miah notes. 

What Does It Mean for Customers?

Other than joining a valuable global effort to better the telco industry and fight fraud worldwide, Toku has another key motive to adopt the AB Handshake solution: protecting their customers. 

“As the most extensive PSTN replacement network in the APAC, Toku manages a very significant number of virtual numbers, which function as businesses’ identities,” Miah shares. 

Joining the AB Handshake network allows Toku to help their enterprise customers benefit from top-notch cloud communications without having to compromise on their reputation or their customers’ trust. 

“Even if they’re not actively participating in the AB network, in working with Toku, they automatically benefit from part of that protection too” 

 

 



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