Strategic partnership establishes a single solution for enterprises to vet and authenticate phone calls – establishing a secure foundation for branded calling

Neustar, Inc., a TransUnion company, and Transaction Network Services (TNS) have announced a strategic partnership to provide enterprises the ability to vet and authenticate calls across the largest cross-carrier distribution in North America, through one single point of entry. Through direct network integration with major wireless and wireline carriers, this partnership helps enable secure, trusted calls to more than 360 million U.S. consumers – including the 36% of households that rely on landline phone service.

By providing the ability to both validate legitimate enterprises and authenticate calls through one platform, Neustar and TNS are helping protect subscribers from phone scams, support enterprise-to-consumer communication, and restore trusted calls to the telecom ecosystem. Components include:

• Vetting and Registration: Leveraging a proven approach, Neustar and TNS established best practices to validate the legitimacy of enterprises, and confirm they have the right to use associated telephone numbers and caller data so they can more rapidly vet and register telephone numbers.
• Authentication: Through a standards-based approach, this partnership provides new functionality to enterprises and contact centers so they can participate fully in the call authentication process. Using Out-of-Band SHAKEN, for instance, automates the end-to-end process of digitally validating calls.

“The new platform helps extend the call authentication trust chain and further strengthen the effectiveness of STIR/SHAKEN standards – establishing a strong foundation for branded calling and Rich Call Data (RCD),” said James Garvert, senior vice president of Communications Solutions at Neustar. “We encourage other companies to join us in adopting this approach to help restore trust in the phone channel.”

“Leading the initiative of restoring trust to voice is a prime directive for TNS and this partnership,” said Bill Versen, president of the Communications Market for TNS. "Finally, enterprises have a way to verify and authenticate outbound calls through a single point of entry. This unified, cross-carrier platform now sets the stage to enable enterprises to provide consumers the enhanced information that they’re looking for. Successfully combatting call spoofing and robocalls requires collaboration. We’d like to see other companies embrace this approach with us.”

Branded calling gives consumers a reason to answer calls by enabling enterprises to add their brand name, call reason, logo, and more to the mobile display. This capability delivers a superior customer experience and can help dramatically increase call answer rates, improve customer engagement, and drive revenue back to enterprises.

For more information, visit the respective websites of Neustar and TNS.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)

TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good®. A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences, and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people. www.transunion.com

About Neustar

Neustar, Inc., a TransUnion company, is a leader in identity resolution providing the data and technology that enable trusted connections between companies and people at the moments that matter most. Neustar offers industry-leading solutions in marketing, risk and communications that responsibly connect data on people, devices and locations, continuously corroborated through billions of transactions. Learn how your company can benefit from the power of trusted connections. www.home.neustar

About Transaction Network Services

From small rural operators in the US to the largest multi-national carriers, TNS addresses the full needs of wireless and wireline operators in the US and globally. TNS Call Guardian® is an industry-leading call analytics solution used by leading US wireless service providers as well as US landline providers to protect its subscribers from high risk and nuisance robocalls and deliver a superior user experience. By analyzing over 1 billion call events across more than 500 operators every single day and capturing crowdsourced feedback, the Call Guardian app enables carriers to identify more unwanted robocalls than competitors. For additional information visit https://tnsi.com/products/communications-market/

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