The industry’s Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF) worked with the i3forum to launch the code of conduct in March 2018, when A1 Telekom Austria, BICS, BT, Colt, Deutsche Telekom ICSS, Etisalat, Orange, PCCW Global, Telefónica and Türk Telekom International signed the code.
Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS, announced at International Telecoms Week (ITW) in Chicago this morning that another eight have signed: BTS, Interoute, Sprint, Tele2, Telia Carrier, Telstra, MNF Group including TNZI, and Vodafone.
“Now it’s moving to actions [on fraud],” Kurgan said in a packed conference session at ITW. “It’s a very strong stance. GLF and the i3forum invite all interested wholesale carriers to sign the code of conduct. The first thing to do is to sign the code and then invite all your business partners to sign the code.”
Marc Halbfinger, CEO of PCCW Global and chair of the GLF, encouraged companies to organise staff with the right skillsets to manage threats to their infrastructure. “This is an issue for everyone. If you don’t have someone whose job it is you don’t care about it enough. We need to be vigorous about fraud.”
Kurgan said: “If your partners refuse to sign the code this should ring a big bell. It’s only by acting collectively that we can get results.”
At the moment the GLF is focused on fraud in the wholesale voice market, but it will widen its attention to cover areas such as messaging and cloud, said Kurgan.
“We’ve seen more and more of the networks of our customers being hacked,” he said. “These activities are taking place across our networks and we could take action.”
The code of conduct includes:
• A commitment to monitor and report on fraudulent activity
• Adhering to i3forum recommended processes to detect fraud
• Blocking fraudulent number ranges and destinations
• Taking the appropriate action to stop payment flows to those who commit fraud
• A commitment to share information regarding fraudulent traffic flows with carrier peers
• Adopting standard contracting terms addressing fraudulent traffic management
The full code of conduct and the list of carriers pledged to follow the principles are available at: www.itwglf.com
