Over 150 people across a spectacular cross section of the ecosystem joined the transformative Restore Trust webinar held last week on September 7. Participants represented 45+ traffic-carrying companies from all over the world, and a dozen global and national industry organizations, National Regulatory Authorities, Government Authorities and Law Enforcement Agencies, and 35+ vendors and solutions providers.
The presentation and video session replay are now available on demand:
View the presentation document >
Special thanks to our speakers:
Annabel Helm, GLF | Linda Vandeloop, AT&T, STI-GA
Josh Bercu, Industry Traceback Group | Rob Kurver, CPaaS Acceleration Alliance
Pasqualina Spagnuolo, ITRF | Eli Katz, Comms Council UK
Katia Gonzalez, BICS | Nishant Arya, Tata Communications
Céline Gregoire, iBASIS
Whether you joined us live or are watching on demand, your input and opinions matter to us, and we invite you to complete a brief survey to help shape this movement over the coming months.If you are an international traffic carrying company or industry organization representing such companies, and are interested in participating to the Pre-Consortium working session on September 28, register your interest by emailing Philippe and Christian by September 22nd.
National Regulatory Authorities, Government Authorities, National Communications Associations, please confirm the appropriate contacts via email to Philippe and Christian so we can contact you in the coming weeks.
All participants, the next information session will be held in mid-October – please help us grow interest and participation!
Do not hesitate to send us any questions or comments you may have regarding this initiative.
On September 18, i3forum Chairman Philippe Millet will share our vision and proposed industry-wide One Consortium initiative to combat illegal/unwanted communications and restore trust in international communications with the CPaaS community gathering in Amsterdam for CASA23.
i3forum is inviting all International Communications Industry ecosystem contributors – international carriers, aggregators, CPaaS players, industry organizations, vendors, and other stakeholders – to an initial “launch” meeting.
To be held September 7th at 7:00 AM EDT / 1:00 PM CET / 4:30 PM IST / 7:00 PM SGT, the meeting will open discussions around the creation of an industry-wide consortium aiming at restoring trust in international communication.
The rapid growth of unwanted and/or illegal communications, e.g. spamming, spoofing, robocalling, and more, is severely damaging public trust in communications.
As a result, the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) are compelled to impose new requirements, not only domestically but also on the international communications industry. This legitimate effort to eradicate such unwanted and/or illegal international inbound communications, is unfortunately highly uncoordinated across the various countries and globally suboptimal.
Challenges lie in a number of areas, in particular in the following two:
The current approach creates confusion, slows adoption of potential solutions, creates loopholes internationally that fraudsters are quick to exploit (“whack-a-mole” situation). It also constitutes a growing burden for NRAs. In some instances, requirements on international traffic can also lead to negative outcomes for genuine communications presented as “high risk” traffic.
This global challenge calls for an unprecedented and highly innovative response: one rooted in collaboration not only within the International Communications Industry, but also with National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) – and ideally, directly or indirectly, between NRAs.
Industry and NRAs share the same objectives:
No individual stakeholder – industry or regulatory – can successfully address those issues alone. Collaboration at all levels is an absolute requirement.
i3forum is developing the launch of a global initiative to build an inclusive, agile, and coordinated framework to restore trust in International Communications. Today we are soliciting your feedback during the meeting to which you are hereby invited.
This approach starts with the International Communications Industry rallying around one shared objective: collaborating to build the unified guidance and solutions that are required to efficiently fight unwanted and/or illegal communications, that will address both NRAs and Industry concerns.
Together, we will build a framework for standardized global guidance and industry viable solutions, such as starting with international calls with National CLI inbound to country level.
This approach also calls for the Industry to engage with NRAs and co-develop joint or self-regulated mechanisms to implement, operate, and enforce such a framework on an opt-in basis. It will ensure that compliance drives benefits and non-compliance causes significant negative consequences.
A good place to start is tackling immediate issues such as legitimate International Traffic using National CLI. There are several current use cases to address:
More complex areas requiring advanced NRAs and Industry cooperation include:
To build the “Industry voice” of our discussion with NRAs and as a neutral vehicle for collaboration, the i3forum is spearheading the creation of “One Consortium” as an essential component of the “Restore Trust in International Communications” initiative.
Inviting all International Communications Industry ecosystem contributors, One Consortium needs to achieve the following:
The structure considered for One Consortium would be governed by some key principles, including:
i3forum is inviting all interested to participate in an informal “pre-consortium” working group.
The agenda of the call will be to discuss, refine, and agree on the One Consortium vision, mission, and strategy, to then formalize plans and decide upon the organization’s incorporation and structure.
Join us for the initial “launch” virtual meeting on September 7th at 7:00 AM EDT / 1:00 PM CET / 4:30 PM IST / 7:00 PM SGT.
Paris, France – i3forum, a leading industry association focused on driving global collaboration and innovation within the communications sector, announces the appointment of Christian Michaud as Vice Chairman of its Board of Directors. It also welcomes new members to its Advisory Council Annabel Helm, Managing Director of the ITW Global Leaders Forum (GLF), ITW, and BroadGroup, and Simon Dodsworth, VP and Head of Voice Trading at Arelion, who also serves as Executive Chairman of the Global Solutions Council (GSC), a non-profit organization enabling the communications industry to simplify, improve, standardize, and resolve the exchange of billing and settlement information globally.
An integral contributor to the organization since 2008, Christian Michaud became Vice Chairman in 2016 and served until the end of his term in 2021. He brings extensive experience and leadership in the telecommunications industry to the Board of Directors.
Philippe Millet, Chairman of the i3forum, comments, “Christian’s appointment as Vice Chairman will unquestionably bolster our efforts to foster collaboration and trust, promote best practices, and develop strategies to address challenges and opportunities facing the international communications industry.”
Millet adds, “We are thrilled to welcome Annabel and Simon to our Advisory Council. Their inclusion will undoubtedly enrich the diversity of thought and experience to better serve our Members and the international carrier community at large. It also underlines the importance of collaboration between industry organizations.”
Spearheading new initiatives such as launching its Numbering Plan Community Platform and establishing the industry-wide One Consortium to restore trust in international communications, i3forum continues strengthening its commitment to enable and accelerate transformation across the international communications ecosystem.
About i3forum
The i3forum is a non-profit industry body that drives global collaboration and innovation across the international communications ecosystem through an open and inclusive model. The i3forum and its community develop practical recommendations, tools, solutions, and policies to help understand consumer behavior, leverage technology, adapt to regulatory requirements, and foster trust in international communications. For more information, visit www.i3forum.org.
Media Contact
Jason McGee-Abe
26FIVE Global Lab
i3forum@26five.com
+44 7970 237682
Response to Ofcom Consultation (28th April 2023): Consultation: Calling Line Identification (CLI) authentication – a potential approach to detecting and blocking spoofed numbers.
i3forum welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation. We support Ofcom’s open approach to evaluating the numerous areas available to the industry, especially including international origination, which will enable authentication and validation in order to reduce the opportunities for fraud.
June 15, 2023, Paris, France – i3forum, a leading industry association focused on driving global collaboration and innovation within the international communications sector, is proud to announce the launch of its Numbering Plan Community Platform.
After completing successful user trials over many months, recruiting 10+ participating carrier and vendor members along the way, i3forum is now inviting the industry at large to join the collaborative initiative and share best practices and insights on Numbering Plans.
Numbering plans are vital in telecommunications as they provide a standardized framework for addressing, routing, and identifying communications within and across networks. Many of the industry’s shortcomings are rooted in the imperfect knowledge of Numbering Plans. At no given time is there a single source that has granular, up-to-date, operationally relevant knowledge of the Numbering Plan for each country or market. And whatever knowledge anyone does have, it almost always differs from the knowledge of other industry partners or sources.
Updates and changes also take too long to propagate with authoritative sources and information is often unclear or inaccessible. This has created multiple issues, ranging from fraud, disputes, and under-optimization of routing and pricing to unintentionally enabling unwanted and illegal communications.
“To fix these issues, we’ve created a platform to be the place to go to exchange numbering plan updates and collaborate with experts from around the world. We’re launching something extremely innovative that has never been done before: a Numbering Plan community where experts across the industry can exchange information and key insights into numbering plan interpretations, sources (both authoritative and non-authoritative), commercial applications, fraud trends, and more,” said Philippe Millet, Founder and Chair of i3forum and chair of the Numbering Workgroup.
“The platform is not a central database capturing global numbering plans. It complements what vendors are doing in terms of building reference databases. Monthly calls are also held by the Numbering Workgroup for the community to engage with one another and openly talk about issues or share timely, accurate numbering plan data and expertise with industry peers. Participation leads to shared industry views on critical issues and the exchange of important numbering plan updates and data. Addressing the problems we face requires a collaborative approach with regular review and adaptation of numbering plans to overcome these challenges and support the efficient and optimal functioning of telecommunications.”
Traditional members include both professionals directly managing their company’s global numbering plan and those applying it to their respective business functions (e.g., routing, pricing, billing, fraud prevention, and market management).
“The Numbering Plan Community is a collaborative space to exchange valuable numbering plan insights with the industry. We can easily share our own numbering plan expertise and in turn, get timely news & updates from our peers. These fresh insights can help us to better optimize our A-Z offers to the benefit of our business and our customers,” said Jamie Fisher, Destination and Carrier Account Manager at Telstra.
The news follows a string of i3forum announcements, including the launch of the One Consortium initiative to restore trust in international communications, pledge to develop a fraud KPI tool for its Insights platform, and an MoU signed with GSC to create new SMS fraud guidelines.
Strengthen your company’s global numbering plan while contributing to a more consistent, uniform industry view. Join the community today!
About i3forum
The i3forum is a non-profit industry body focused on driving global collaboration and innovation across the international communications ecosystem through an open and inclusive model. The i3forum and its community develop practical recommendations, tools, solutions, and policies to help understand consumer behavior, leverage technology, adapt to regulatory requirements, and foster trust in international communications. For more information, visit www.i3forum.org.
Media
Jason McGee-Abe
26FIVE Global Lab
i3forum@26five.com
+44 7970 237682
Philippe Millet, the chair of i3forum, recently revealed an exciting initiative to restore trust in international communications with the establishment of the industry-wide One Consortium.
While we have progressively improved best practice and measures to combat Voice Fraud and made promising strides in Messaging, the fight continues. We have taken that challenge head-on with, for example, our efforts to enforce the joint i3forum/Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF) Code of Conduct, operational cooperation within the i3forum Fight Fraud Working Group, and our ongoing work on the Messaging Fraud workgroup, which builds on the work of organizations, such as MEF, GSMA or the Global Solutions Council.
However, the rapidly growing trend of unwanted/illegal communications (such as spamming, spoofing, robocalling) is posing a more significant challenge than traditional fraud. This surge is eroding the confidence of consumers, businesses, and the public in communications, leading to a rise in complaints and subsequent impact on our business.
The need is for an innovative, never-seen-before response rooted in collaboration not only within the industry but also with National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs). The urgency for cooperation has reached an all-time high. What makes this challenge unique is that any viable solution created to fight unwanted or illegal communications and restore trust should, and in fact must, involve the NRAs as they are responsible for creating the regulations. But critically, they can not fix these international problems on their own.
As required by their role, NRAs step in to safeguard the public, and while they have comprehensive authority domestically their reach on the international front remains limited. International traffic often lacks adequate cooperation between NRAs, resulting in multiple, disjointed requirements for International Carriers that are inconsistent, potentially inefficient, and costly to implement. This approach is neither sustainable for the industry nor effective in resolving the issue.
Currently, the NRAs are driving the process which is why our collaboration with them is vital, despite the fact that the traffic under discussion is often considered “legitimate” transit traffic. This issue cannot be resolved internally within the industry, marking a significant shift from traditional methods of combating fraud. This is why our initiative is not merely just another code of conduct. It’s important to note that this problem is not one that can be solved solely by NRAs or any single entity.
Our first step towards gaining the attention and cooperation of the NRAs involves demonstrating credibility, goodwill, and transparency within the industry. By unifying under this inclusive initiative launched by the i3forum and joining the One Consortium, we can work on proposals encompassing governance, self-regulation, policies, and supporting technologies. We’re not starting from scratch – numerous organizations are already working on the foundational aspects.
If we fail to take these steps, we risk living in a world where every National Regulatory Authority demands compliance with their unique requirements. However, if executed correctly, this initiative can safeguard communications and unlock untapped business potential in both retail and wholesale sectors based on Trusted Communications.
Details of the One Consortium are expected to be disclosed shortly.
Paris, France – i3forum, a leading industry association focused on driving global collaboration and innovation within the communications sector, and the Global Solutions Council (GSC), a non-profit organization enabling the communications industry to simplify, improve, standardize, and resolve the exchange of billing and settlement information globally, have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the fight against SMS fraud.
Having worked hard to establish principles and KPIs for international carriers in the fight against voice fraud, the i3forum’s Fight Fraud workgroup has now firmly set its sights on establishing new guidelines to tackle the surging threat of SMS fraud. i3forum is already in discussions with the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) to build on the great work that they’ve conceptualized and the new partnership with the GSC will help to enrich insights on the challenges of dealing with SMS fraud operationally and financially on the front line.
As the current chair of i3forum’s Fight Fraud workgroup, Katia Gonzalez, who was recently elected to the i3forum board, will be leading collaborations throughout the telecoms world to promote SMS fraud awareness and implement a unified and standardized approach to resolve and measure complex fraud issues.
“Earlier this year, the GSC raised the flag and informed us their members’ SMS services were increasingly witnessing the effects of fraud attacks and there were growing concerns around dispute management and payments,” said Gonzalez, who is also Head of Fraud Prevention and Analytics at BICS.
“Having successfully established standards and a code of conduct to combat fraud in voice, which was endorsed by the Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), we’re looking forward to working collaboratively with the GSC to establish the same principles in the area of SMS services.”
There are many factors that are contributing to the increase in malicious SMS fraud, including: SMS hacking, smishing, spoofing, spamming, and malware. According to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA) Fraud Loss Survey 2021, SMS fraud accounted for $3.65 billion in losses, but that figure is surging today.
“The GSC’s members are at the sharp end resolving and dealing with disputes and fraudulent settlements. Our partnership with i3forum gives us the opportunity to play an active role in agreeing on and creating the right principles and guidelines to combat SMS fraud,” said Executive Council Member of the GSC, Simon Dodsworth, who is also VP and Head of Voice Trading at Arelion.
“The time to collaborate is now. Our livelihoods are at stake as the speed at which messaging fraud is accelerating is like condensing the last 20 years of voice fraud evolution into a fraction of that time. Given that voice margins are declining, many companies are relying on messaging as a useful supplement to their revenues. The GSC is proud to begin work with i3forum to fight the surging existential threat facing the carrier world today.”
About i3forum
The i3forum is a non-profit industry body focused on driving global collaboration and innovation across the international communications ecosystem through an open and inclusive model. The i3forum and its community develop practical recommendations, tools, solutions, and policies to help understand consumer behavior, leverage technology, adapt to regulatory requirements, and foster trust in international communications. For more information, visit www.i3forum.org.
About Global Solutions Council
The Global Solutions Council (GSC) is a non-profit organization that was created in January 2003 by a collective of leading Carriers dedicated to meeting increased demand for flexible global electronic information exchange, billing and settlement standardization and best practices business process development to accelerate commercial resolution and performance. The GSC’s mission is to be the reference for commercial resolution in the communications industry and to provide the blueprint and advance the processes, best practices and tools that foster resolution.
Media Contact
Jason McGee-Abe
26FIVE Global Lab
i3forum@26five.com
+44 7970 237682
Paris, France – i3forum, a leading industry association focused on driving global collaboration and innovation within the communications sector, has today launched a new initiative to help restore trust in the international communications industry.
The drive towards a consortium model in the pursuit of collective accountability and collaboration to drive interoperable guidelines is much needed in the face of surging threats and fraud. i3forum is extremely mindful and careful of not duplicating other associations’ efforts but wants to better align efforts.
“In the face of surging threats and attacks amid increased digitization, we are facing an international communications crisis on a global scale. Origination identifiers are being plagued by surging fraud volumes and sophisticated attacks, and there’s misuse and lack of trust,” declared Philippe Milet, Founder and Chairman of i3forum.
“A paradigm shift is needed in our approach to tackling issues and recommendations. Associations are well positioned to help solve many challenges that impact the international ecosystem, but only if they work together. They’re like jigsaw pieces and if we don’t work together properly with one another and towards the same picture then we can never truly solve the puzzle and challenge. Better yet, by working together from the outset, we can help to influence what the landscape may even look like.”
Associations do valuable work in their own respective areas but i3forum, which champions the perspectives of wholesale and international carriers, is hoping to forge new partnerships and collaborative ways of embedding respective association workgroups to foster true innovation and progress. The news comes as the i3forum’s ranks have been bolstered with a new board, new members, and an advisory council.
As part of the launch, which will first focus on international voice traffic, i3forum has established four goals in a globally coordinated international effort:
i3forum will be looking to achieve its mission to restore trust by helping to establish standardized guidance and solutions, a self-regulated framework with levels of compliance monitoring and enforcement, and joint regulatory activity between the i3forum, associations, industry stakeholders, and National Regulatory Agencies (NRAs).
“We all share the same pressing issue of how we ultimately communicate with regulators and NRAs when there are so many different approaches, solutions, metrics, and feedback. By working together at the start, we can help to better shape the future,” added Christian Michaud, Executive Director of i3forum. “We want to better enable and accelerate transformation across the international carrier and communications ecosystem.”
In 2021, i3forum filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on behalf of the international wholesale carrier community on its proposed rulemaking to fight against robocalling. i3forum will be looking to help regulators and commissions with their calls for industry feedback by collaborating with all parties in the wholesale carrier community to harmonize recommendations and create interoperable guidelines in the complex international telecommunications ecosystem.
If associations don’t come together, the industry ultimately suffers because of complexities, cost, compliance burden, legal penalties, and revenue opportunity loss. Trust is lost, traffic is affected, and calls are unanswered.
At the dawn of a new (r)evolution, will you answer the i3forum’s call to action to restore trust?
Go to www.i3forum.org to get involved.
About i3forum
The i3forum is a non-profit industry body focused on driving global collaboration and innovation across the international communications ecosystem through an open and inclusive model. The i3forum and its community develop practical recommendations, tools, solutions, and policies to help understand consumer behavior, leverage technology, adapt to regulatory requirements, and foster trust in international communications. For more information, visit www.i3forum.org.
Media Contact
Jason McGee-Abe
26FIVE Global Lab
i3forum@26five.com
+44 7970 237682
Paris, France – i3forum, a leading industry association focused on driving global collaboration and innovation within the communications sector, has today announced it will enrich its Insights platform by developing a new Fraud Key Performance Indicator (KPI) feature.
By developing and adding a new Fraud KPI to Insights, at a time when fraud threats are surging and attacks are becoming more sophisticated, teams can leverage even clearer market views to help make smarter and more secure decisions to boost quality of service and revenue. The additional layer of intelligence Insights provides, along with its user-friendly extranet and robust reporting capabilities, is added to users’ own dashboards via an API to stay on top of fraud and help drive key business decisions.
“We’re looking to create a fraud awareness tool that will help to give more granular detail to flag whether a range of numbers are risky or have already been subject to fraudulent incidents. By spotlighting these cases, we better equip not only members to benefit and build the right processes, but the entire industry,” said Katia Gonzalez, i3forum Board member and Head of Fraud Prevention and Advanced Analytics at BICS.
“By adding a Fraud KPI to the Insights platform, we’ll be helping companies make smarter, more informed decisions with greater speed. Market data helps to better shape the future of carrier businesses and i3forum Insights is a perfect platform for carriers to collaborate further in the fight against fraud.”
i3forum’s Insights platform, which is powered by TeleGeography and launched in January 2020, is a comprehensive market database for international voice services that provides robust market trending and benchmarking capabilities for carriers to better manage their international voice traffic. Carriers can benchmark their size, revenues, margins, and quality parameters with Insights and use it as a central resource for planning, optimizing, and growing businesses.
i3forum’s Fight Fraud Workgroup, which is chaired by Gonzalez, has been very successful to date in creating initiatives to help bring the wholesale carrier community together to share knowledge, raise awareness, build the right processes and best practices, and create guidelines to combat fraud.
i3forum’s leading efforts include gaining the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF) endorsement of its work with the launch of a Code of Conduct to combat fraud in international telecoms and also the sharing of its recommendations with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the proposed rulemaking to fight against robocalling.
The news comes after i3forum recently announced new members to its Board and association, as well as a new Advisory Council. At International Telecommunications Week (ITW) next week, i3forum is set to announce an industry-wide initiative and an anti-fraud partnership.
About i3forum
The i3forum is a non-profit industry body focused on driving global collaboration and innovation across the international communications ecosystem through an open and inclusive model. The i3forum and its community develop practical recommendations, tools, solutions, and policies to help understand consumer behavior, leverage technology, adapt to regulatory requirements, and foster trust in international communications. For more information, visit www.i3forum.org.
Media Contact
Jason McGee-Abe
26FIVE Global Lab
i3forum@26five.com
+44 7970 237682
On Tuesday, May 16th at ITW, in collaboration with other major industry organizations, i3forum launched our game-changing ‘Restore Trust in International Communications’ initiative.
Special thank you to our supporting partners.
Paris, France – i3forum, a leading industry association focused on driving global collaboration and innovation within the international communications sector, is proud to announce the appointment of its newly elected Board.
Joining the i3forum Board are Katia Gonzalez, Head of Fraud Prevention and Advanced Analytics at BICS; Céline Gregoire, SVP of Marketing and Voice Product at iBASIS; and Thanga Durairaj, Head of Carrier Voice Product at Vodafone Global Enterprise.
The group of industry leaders comes together to foster collaboration and trust, promote best practices, and develop strategies to address challenges and opportunities facing the international communications industry, particularly in International Voice and Application-to-Person (A2P) Messaging.
Katia Gonzalez, Head of Fraud Prevention and Advanced Analytics at BICS, says, “I am lucky to be surrounded by a group of brilliant and motivated individuals that share a common goal: effectively fight fraud in a way that respects both the wholesale carrier and IPX provider business nature and provides tangible benefits to the industry.”
The organization also announced the creation of an Advisory Council, gathering a group of experts to provide strategic guidance, advice, and support to its board of directors.
“We are thrilled to welcome our new Board Members, Members, and Advisors to our i3forum community. Their respective experience in international communications and industry engagement will be invaluable in influencing our industry evolution and driving collaboration and trust,” says Philippe Millet, Founder and Chair of i3forum.
New Members include Telin and Titanium, joining the i3forum Members: BICS, BT, BTS, Colt Technology Services, Hot Telecom, iBASIS, Lanck Telecom, NetNumber, Orange, OTEGLOBE, PCCW Global, Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), Sparkle, Symbio, Tata Communications, Telefónica Global Solutions, Telstra, Twilio, Vodafone, and XConnect.
i3forum is set to make a series of announcements before and during International Telecoms Week (ITW) 2023, which will take place 14-17th May at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland. i3forum will also be hosting a Briefing Luncheon on Tuesday 16th May at the Eastern Shore, Lower Atrium, from 12:30-2:00 PM EST. For more information, visit www.i3forum.org.
Jason McGee-Abe
26FIVE Global Lab
i3forum@26five.com
+44 7970 237682
i3forum Insights is a comprehensive market database for international voice services. It provides a robust market trending and benchmarking capability for carriers managing international voice traffic. Watch our demo and join us now to enjoy this powerful, unique solution.
For more Insights support, contact Jon Hull from Telegeography or the i3forum.
Great conversation about the importance of industry collaboration in key areas of international communications. Also great to hear from a user of Insight describing the value that this platform brings to their business.
With Insights and Insights Light our members receive an unbiased view of the market trends including their position and ranking versus the competition and the market average performance levels. Insights includes information on over 17,400 destinations and greater than 3,000,000 individual data points. Core KPIs include geographic data, traffic and revenue, and quality of service data.
Listen the podcast hosted by TeleGeography.
TeleGeography Explains the Internet – When Carriers Collaborate
Hosted by Greg Bryan and joined by Philippe Millet, Founder and Chairman of the i3forum, as well as Michael Lawrence, Director of Business Intelligence, Operations and Transformation at Tata Communications.
