Here at TelNet Worldwide, we’re on a mission to simplify and unify the way businesses communicate. Ensuring that we have the best technology and strongest network infrastructure is the only way to do so. As part of this ongoing effort, we are in the process of transforming our core voice network from a TDM-based structure to a fully-IP network.
This shift represents our commitment to future-proofing our network and becoming an all-IP service provider. It will make services more redundant and reliable, and provide more security, capacity and accessibility to automation and monitoring software. We’ll be able to remove analog PSTN networking and switching entirely to reduce complexity.
Evolving the Network
Currently, our connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is partly accomplished via legacy TDM-based services. This update involves replacing our core voice switch and changing our PSTN interconnection from legacy to IP.
“The network revolves around the core, and everything is built up around it,” said Pete Iannuzzi, Network Engineering Manager “and we’re fully qualified to deliver; we’ve been involved in five core replacements over the past 22 years. The network is in experienced hands.”
Telecommunications is dependent upon technology and is driven by a demand for more content, mobility and accessibility.
“This is why transforming to an all-IP network becomes necessary,” said Iannuzzi. “IP networks are ubiquitous and the perfect vehicle for enabling our communication services to provide richer content to our customers.”
Built to Fight Fraud
One of the primary catalysts for this core replacement is the FCC’s adoption of the STIR/SHAKEN framework. To be compliant with this new industry-wide protocol, carriers must validate and verify outbound caller information, so that fraud can be monitored and investigated.
The prevalence of fraud is what’s driving this industry-wide initiative. According to the YouMail Robocalling Index, 45.9 billion robocalls were made in 2020, 45 percent of which were scams. Unsurprisingly, this is causing 88 percent of business calls to go unanswered. People just don’t trust incoming calls enough to answer the phone.
“At TelNet, we strive not only to provide a high quality and reliable voice service, but to ensure that it is secure,” said Iannuzzi. “Implementation of STIR/SHAKEN protocols within TelNet’s new core voice infrastructure will ensure that caller ID has not been spoofed, ultimately reducing the number of illegal robocalls and protecting our customers from fraud.”
In other words, we’re an active participant in the industry’s fight against fraudulent spoofing and robocalls, so our customers can once again be confident in picking up the phone.
New Technology Partnerships
In order to execute this enhancement, TelNet Worldwide has selected Ribbon Communications as our new technology partner. Ribbon’s switching platform is composed of a policy engine (PSX), session border controllers (SBCs) and an element management system (EMS).
In conjunction with Transnexus serving as our certificate authority, this platform empowers TelNet to easily expand the capacity of the system and deployment architecture to ensure reliability, security and quality.
The New Age of Technology
Now that the transformation is complete, we have access to rich call data to ensure the validity of each caller, and our customers are protected from unwanted fraudulent calls. Plus, the system comes with built-in robocall prevention measures like real-time traffic analysis, reputation look-up and blacklist services (think invalid number repositories and curated lists of high-risk numbers.)
As Iannuzzi said, “We’re sitting on the edge of the most current voice service technology and software.” And it’s all about improving the customer experience.
