Unified Office will testify today before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to advocate for stronger protections around caller identity authentication, spam labeling accuracy, and the integrity of emerging Rich Call Data (RCD) frameworks.
The testimony will focus on policy recommendations designed to protect legitimate businesses and consumers while strengthening the reliability of the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure.
“Millions of legitimate calls from emergency services, doctors, pharmacies, and local businesses may be incorrectly labeled as spam despite FCC-mandated authentication safeguards,” said Ray Pasquale, Founder & CEO of Unified Office. “We are in Washington to fight for our customers in an effort to make sure that their calls go through and connect to the intended parties without third party intervention and/or the levy of any additional, unnecessary fees.”
Unified Office’s testimony will urge the FCC to adopt policies that preserve authenticated caller identity information, improve accountability across the telecom ecosystem, and ensure fair and transparent industry practices.
During the hearing, Unified Office will present several key regulatory proposals, including:
Protecting Caller Identity Under Existing Law: Unified Office supports the FCC’s authority under the Truth in Caller ID Act to protect authenticated caller identity information beyond phone numbers.
The company recommends prohibiting third parties from modifying or mislabeling verified caller names and requiring that accurate caller name information be made available to consumers as a standard service rather than monetized through separate CNAM databases.
Preserving End-to-End Integrity of Rich Call Data: To ensure trust in emerging identity frameworks, Unified Office recommends that intermediate providers be required to transmit authenticated caller identity and Rich Call Data without modification.
The company also proposes the implementation of monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, real-time integrity verification tools, and a feedback system for reporting caller ID accuracy issues and spam labeling errors. Unified Office is advocating for a formal appeals process that would allow businesses to contest incorrect spam labeling and trigger automatic corrections when errors are verified.
Strengthening Direct FCC Enforcement Unified Office will recommend that the FCC prohibit transit and terminating carriers from modifying authenticated caller identity information.
The company is proposing a mandatory trace-back and notification system for mislabeled calls, along with enforcement measures that include penalties, corrective action plans, and public reporting of violations.
Ensuring Framework Neutrality and Fair Competition: Unified Office’s testimony will emphasize the importance of maintaining a framework-neutral approach to caller identity authentication.
Rather than designating a single commercial entity as the exclusive “trust anchor,” the company recommends establishing minimum standards that allow multiple competing frameworks to operate. This approach would ensure transparent, non-discriminatory accreditation is accessible to all service providers.
Strengthening the Existing Authentication Framework: Unified Office supports stronger oversight and enforcement of the current STIR/SHAKEN caller authentication framework.
The company recommends requiring transmission of verified caller identity information to consumers when A-level attestations are present and ensuring that originating providers verify the accuracy of the identity information they transmit. A-level attestation, the most basic level of attestation, indicates that the service provider has authenticated the caller and the caller is authorized to use the calling number.
Unified Office believes these measures will improve caller ID accuracy, prevent the mislabeling of legitimate business calls, promote fair competition among providers, and restore public confidence in public telecom networks, which is what the FCC was created to do.
