23 November 2021 # Protecting your users from robot callers may take expert third-party help ![](https://www.digitalk.com/images/red-black-pattern.jpg) ## A context of eroded trust ![Law books](https://www.digitalk.com/images/blog/aleix-ventayol-ypom-wmzkmm-unsplash.jpg) All over the world, consumers are taking action to avoid spam and nuisance calls – by not answering calls from numbers they don’t recognise. That’s because their confidence that [the call will be from a legitimate source](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/missing-colorado-hiker-ignored-calls-b1945284.html) has almost completely been eroded. Indeed, this lack of faith has got to a point where a lost hiker refused to pick up desperate calls from friends trying to save them—a sad indictment indeed for phone marketing abuse. In response, and to safeguard legitimate interests, governments are demanding their regulators start to provide an environment the public will trust again. As a result, regulators are tabling more and more legislation (e.g., TRACED Act leading to STIR/SHAKEN in North America, enhanced controls in Italy, BT instigating efforts to control mobile range fraud, or the Pakistan Telecom Authorities monthly ANI Spoofing updates) to curb Robocalling and Origination (ANI/CLI) Spoofing. So regulatory authorities in multiple geographies are demanding that telcos wanting to terminate voice traffic in their country meet such strictures. And this is something we should all welcome. But while the details of the implementation may differ region to region and authority to authority, the twin challenge for operators remains the same: how best to comply with complex, constantly changing rules enforced by third parties who just want quick results…. and the need to keep abreast of all the new rules, in different territories with complex requirements in tractable ways in terms of resources (both fiscal and man hours). Let’s get into this complexity in a little more detail – and then suggest a potential way forward. ## Complexity in Motion: The Pakistan Telecoms Authority Example Every country has its unique challenges, but Pakistan had a particularly thorny set. Here, when the Pakistan Telecoms Authority (PTA) first initiated regulations aimed at reducing the problem of ANI Spoofing, operators had to immediately be able to manage both legacy connections across a large country with a big mix of technologies, so as ensure bad actors were effectively blocked, while still permitting all the valuable, valid traffic to be passed. That meant that, what at first glance, seemed straightforward changes, actually became complex pretty quickly: ![Just some of the many steps an operator terminating in Pakistan now needs to take to deal with local compulsory ANI Spoofing needs](https://www.digitalk.com/images/blog/picture1.png) *Just some of the many steps an operator terminating in Pakistan now needs to take to deal with local compulsory ANI Spoofing needs* If we add to the mix the way the regs keep changing and evolving, only flexible customer-managed solutions stood a chance of working. That’s because a tightly integrated and self-referential matrix of complex, ever-changing rules means anyone still using legacy on-premises solutions just won’t have the flexibility for this level of micro-management without knock-on effects to routing decisions - and quality of service delivered. And that, of course, has further repercussions for revenue and trust with partners. *Digitalk’s customer Link Telecommunications has been at the cutting edge of these changes in Pakistan. As one of the few directly licenced Pakistan Termination Carriers, the flexible features of the Digitalk Carrier Cloud have combined with Link’s proactive approach to allow the team to exceed the requirements placed upon them by the PTA.* *Summing up 12 months of working with Digitalk to manage the changes over the past year, Mohamed Usman, CEO of Link Telecommunications says, “The tools Digitalk provides have enabled us to rapidly respond to changes requested by the regulator ensuring compliance and protection for end users. Best of all, in doing so, we’ve consolidated and grown our market position.”* Put simply, a single static platform solution is an ineffective way to deal with this level of compliance. For sure, it may be possible to try and solve the problem programmatically and tactically by building scripted solutions for these requirements for a particular moment in time, but that can involve on-going expense and third-party professional service fees. Much more preferable is an easily managed yet truly intelligent, real-time, data driven solution that automates this process, for every call and session. That's because as regulatory complexity concerning not only spam calls but other rules increases, your means of meeting and managing these requirements will be managed in-house. But as these rules tend to be in constant flux, any solution will probably require highly-specialist (and therefore expensive skills). You will also need reporting tools that help management clearly view and update multiple overlapping rulesets as simply as they can view and update a rating plan. Further, in-depth Business Intelligence analytics to help with monitoring to provide you with clarity, certainty, and visibility that your service is always fully compliant. The Digitalk Carrier Cloud has been helping partners and customers working to meet PTA’s demands—which means, based on this and other relevant compliant experience, we are starting to help other customers round the world, too. ## How Digitalk Can Help The Digitalk Carrier Cloud was always designed to put flexibility and agility at its core. The same modular architecture that allows it to serve niche premium destination suppliers, premium enterprise providers, and Tier 1 operators means it was very simple to extend it to support the kind of regulatory compliance problems we see and have detailed above. Digitalk Carrier Cloud users, for example, can take advantage of its flexible, modular rulesets matching originations, destinations, blacklists, exceptions list, and more. These can be configured and used singularly, or in combination with other sets to provide data-driven processing of (and great solutions to) both the original simple problem - and more complicated and evolving compliance requirements. All of this is managed through an elegantly designed, easy-to-learn and simple to use browser-based application that can be safely provided to all of the relevant touchpoints in the business. That means there is no need for programmatic interference or specialist technical understanding, as we’ve always believed in a powerful user experience. So, to start meeting the compliance challenge, why not start using Digitalk Carrier Cloud in combination with the rest of the Digitalk fraud prevention suites? These includes support for: - Heuristic Platform Monitoring to identify problems before their detection by the NOC - Auto Blacklisting to enable rule-based blacklisting that complements regulatory standards to ensure compliance - Real Real-Time credit management giving you awareness of calls in progress, delivering genuine Prepaid Support, 24-Hour spend, and reliable Post-paid Credit Limits, providing watertight protection - Business Intelligence that provides instant access to origination information and call pattern interrogation - Flexible Alerting for generating notifications on whatever information is relevant in your regulatory environment - Dynamic Routing to implement automated dynamic rules ensure that target performance is monitored and maintained. ## Next Steps The reality is that we have to operate in an environment of more and more regulations, which tend to be hard to pin down. In North America, for example, STIR/SHAKEN is still in its infancy but all indicators point to it widening in scope, both in terms of its demands and its applicability. Already, we’re seeing that it’s pushing into the global market, with Australia and the UK both signalling they will be looking to adopt the standard in the near future, for instance. That means a partner committed to continuous innovation with the technical depth afforded by global cloud reach is the simplest and most efficient way of supporting you to deal with things like STIR/SHAKEN - and all the rest that’s coming. Digitalk offers a unique combination of tools and reach to ensure you will stay ahead of regulations and take advantage of the business opportunities that arise as your competitors fail to deal with the new legislation as nimbly as you can. Connect with us now to continue the conversation and hear how the Digitalk Carrier Cloud can help with your regulatory and compliance conundrums, through any of the following channels: [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/25165), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/digitalknews), This email address is being protected from spambots. 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