Faulkner Information Services

in-depth information for technology professionals


Telecom Daily

Welcome to Faulkner's Telecom Daily. We publish Monday through Friday, updating top stories as events warrant.

Friday, July 2... 

FCC Announces Full Implementation of STIR/SHAKEN Among Large Carriers
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a press release to mark the June 30 deadline for carriers in the US to fully implement the STIR/SHAKEN standards. With this document, the regulator confirmed that the "largest voice service providers are now using STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication standards in their IP networks." The standard is designed to provide authentication of incoming caller IDs to prevent number spoofing techniques used by robocallers and spam callers. This is another tool in the FCC's growing efforts to prevent unwanted calls from reaching consumers. The agency claims that full implementation of STIR/SHAKEN will "reduce the effectiveness of illegal spoofing, allow law enforcement to identify bad actors more easily, and help voice service providers identify calls with illegally spoofed caller ID information before those calls reach their subscribers." While the June 30, 2021 deadline for large voice providers has passed, the agency noted that smaller providers (those with less than 100,000 subscribers) have until June 30, 2023. However, it also revealed that it is "formally considering shortening that extension for a subset of these providers in light of new evidence indicating that they are originating a high and increasing quantity of illegal robocalls."

AT&T Switching to Google Messages as Default App, Adding RCS Support
AT&T has officially chosen the Google Messages app as the default messaging app for all Android devices sold on its network. The app will replace the built-in Android solution, and will bring universal support for Rich Communication Services (RCS). RCS is a more advanced replacement for the SMS protocol which adds support for features like larger attachments, read receipts, longer message lengths, typing indicators, and end-to-end encryption. Google noted that it expects AT&T to transition all customers to the new platform soon. While AT&T's competitor T-Mobile has made a similar switch, Verizon Wireless remains the odd man out with no announced plans for RCS support.

Ericsson Teams with Samsung, Deutsche Telekom to Test 5G Network Slicing
Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom, and Samsung jointly announced the completion of what they claim is the first "5G end-to-end (E2E) network slicing trial." The test, which took place at Deutsche Telekom's Bonn Lab, used a Samsung Galaxy S21 tethered to a virtual reality headset to stream a VR game over commercial-grade 5G standalone infrastructure provided by Ericsson. The trio claims this technology allows network providers to offer "different service characteristics and quality parameters" for each network "slice." The result, according to the companies, is the ability to create multiple virtual networks on a single physical network infrastructure, with full isolation between networks. This enables faster throughput to each end-user, as well as more stable and lower latency figures. Overall, the technology will allow carriers to use specific network slices to serve specific apps and services, increasing network quality for each customer. No commercial deployment plans for the technology were yet announced.

...Michael Gariffo, Faulkner Information Services


New Security Management Product Is Now Available on the Web
Faulkner's newest information service, Security Management Practices, is now available to subscribers over the Web! For information about subscribing, just send an email message to sales@faulkner.com or call 800-843-0460 (856-662-2070).


Site content copyright 2021, Faulkner Information Services, a division of Information Today. All rights reserved.