USTelecom Says Its Industry Traceback Group 'Remains Best Candidate'

USTelecom's Industry Traceback Group (ITG) "remains the best candidate" for the role of the registered industry consortium for tracebacks, the group told the FCC. Comments posted Friday in docket 20-22 showed support for USTelecom's redesignation as the registered consortium, a designation the group has held since 2020 (see 2007270068). Iconectiv also submitted a letter of intent for designation.

The ITG "meets and exceeds the criteria for selection as the registered consortium," USTelecom said, adding it "goes above and beyond in its commitment to the ongoing fight against fraudulent, abusive, and unlawful traffic." The group noted the ITG took several actions over the past year to improve its operations, including incorporating Stir/Shaken, do not originate, and other third-party analytics data into its operations, automatically notifying providers of potential compliance issues, and developing due diligence tools.

The Enforcement Bureau should "keep up the positive momentum and retain the ITG’s designation," USTelecom said. The group cited iconectiv's letter of intent, saying the company "would be a neutral third party in its operation of traceback." The letter of intent "provides no reason to assume that the governing body would act in an unbiased, non-discriminatory, and technologically neutral manner," USTelecom said.

The ITG "plays a critical role in developing and maintaining the robust traceback processes needed to effectively combat illegal robocalls," said NCTA. The group noted its members, including Charter, Comcast and Cox, are "active participants" in the ITG and "can attest to USTelecom and the ITG’s commitment to protecting consumers and responding nimbly to bad actors’ ever-changing tactics."

Iconectiv "is in a unique position to assist with the goal of automating traceback queries and responses," the company said in its letter of intent, citing "technical relationships with a significant portion of the telecom industry" and already-built automated interfaces. Iconectiv currently is the secure telephone identity policy administrator and local number portability administrator, and operates the telecom relay service numbering directory for iTRS services. The company said it should be considered for the designation because it's "very experienced in global, industry-neutral custodianship, and is a developer of secure, trusted systems."

NCTA disagreed, saying it "commends iconectiv’s substantial and valuable involvement in the voice ecosystem" by being the secure telephone identity policy administrator, but "selection of another consortium at this time would hamper the industry’s ongoing efforts to stop illegal robocalls." USTelecom argued iconectiv's letter of intent "provides almost no concrete information" about how it would conduct its operations as the registered consortium and "fails to substantiate that iconectiv meets any of the necessary criteria for selection."

In its proposal, iconectiv said it "has underlying components in virtually every call or download that occurs in the United States," putting it in a "unique position as a trusted neutral third party" to be designated as the registered consortium. The company said it would conduct traceback operations governed by a "group of authoritative" public, private and government stakeholders. USTelecom raised concerns about the proposal, saying it's "not possible to determine" whether the traceback governing body would be neutral "without the necessary information required by the commission."