PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comcast today announced that the company has rolled out the nation’s largest landline voice implementation of STIR/SHAKEN-based Verified Caller ID feature in an effort to help protect the company’s Xfinity Voice, Comcast Business Voice, and Business VoiceEdge Select customers from illegal robocall calls and caller ID spoofing. These customers will now display a Verified [V] label in the caller ID when a call is authenticated as not spoofed, meaning we have been able to confirm the call is coming from the telephone number displayed.
YouMail estimates that Americans received nearly 46 billion robocalls nationwide in 2020. With an estimated 129 million American households, that’s enough for each family to receive an average of more than 350 spam calls in one year alone. The industry has developed a key technology to help combat robocalls and caller ID spoofing, which makes possible caller ID authentication like the Verified Caller ID feature in Xfinity Voice and Comcast Business Voice.
The Verified Caller ID feature is based on Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN), which is a protocol that authenticates calls between networks. The technology enables voice providers to “sign” and “verify” caller ID information, thus preventing bad actors from manipulating or “spoofing” caller ID information in an effort to deceive and defraud consumers.
“Comcast engineers helped pioneer STIR/SHAKEN and the company has been a leader in the industry-wide effort to combat fraudulent calls since day one,” said Kelly Barlow, SVP Connectivity Services, Comcast. “We’ll continue to enable our customers with the tools to protect themselves and partner within the industry to help rid the nation’s consumers of these dangerous calls for good.”
Comcast has a long history of implementing STIR/SHAKEN features designed to thwart robocalls and phone based scams. In addition to the rollout of Verified Caller ID feature for Xfinity Voice and Comcast Business Voice customers, Comcast worked with major U.S. providers to conduct the first call between two landline voice networks, and the first end-to-end call across three networks, using the STIR/SHAKEN protocol. In addition, the company completed the first international authenticated STIR/SHAKEN call between Xfinity Voice residential phone service and Canadian mobile provider, Telus Wireless in 2020. Additionally, Xfinity Mobile customers can now enable a call verification feature that also uses STIR/SHAKEN or they can download the Hiya app for free to begin receiving alerts about potential spam calls and block them.
About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with three primary businesses: Comcast Cable, NBCUniversal, and Sky. Comcast Cable is one of the United States’ largest high-speed internet, video, and phone providers to residential customers under the Xfinity brand, and also provides these services to businesses. It also provides wireless and security and automation services to residential customers under the Xfinity brand. NBCUniversal is global and operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures, and Universal Parks and Resorts. Sky is one of Europe's leading media and entertainment companies, connecting customers to a broad range of video content through its pay television services. It also provides communications services, including residential high-speed internet, phone, and wireless services. Sky operates the Sky News broadcast network and sports and entertainment networks, produces original content, and has exclusive content rights. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.
