The Restore Trust initiative spearheaded by i3Forum has been given the support of the GSMA and the ITW GLF as announced at Capacity Middle East 2024.
The initiative aims to foster cooperation between the international communications industry and national regulatory authorities (NRAs) to eradicate international nuisance communications originating abroad. Example of nuisance communications include spamming, spoofing or robocalling.
“The Restore Trust and One Consortium initiatives led by the i3Forum with the aim of harmonising regulations and policies faced by our international carrier members is a crucial piece of work,” said Annabel Helm, managing director of the GLF, ITW and Broadgroup.
“Ensuring that the industry can be compliant across multiple jurisdictions to protect consumers will be of huge value to all. Our members are actively working to combat fraudulent and unwanted traffic across the world. Increased engagement and alignment with NRAs behind a shared goal to restore trust is a significant step forward and one that will only benefit consumers.”
The loss of public trust in communications is driven by the proliferation of unwanted/illegal voice calls and messages.
According to Hiya’s Global Call Threat Report Q3 2023, there were approximately 6.55 billion spam calls worldwide in the third quarter of 2023 alone. Indicating more than 73 million unwanted calls every day.
This is a major challenge for both the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs), who attempt to protect its citizens with new regulatory requirements, the industry also has a part to play.
In addition, NRAs focus on their domestic situation but have limited authority to combat communications originating from abroad.
“Ensuring trust in international communications requires a global effort by both industry and regulators. Avoiding fragmented approaches, in different geographies, will be key to achieving success,” added Samantha Kight, head of industry security at GSMA.
“Alongside the work we are doing in GSMA’s Fraud and Security Group, we believe this initiative provides a great opportunity to tackle this challenge by developing technical solutions and governance aimed at global adoption. The Restore Trust initiative requires broad industry and regulatory collaboration, and we look forward to working with i3Forum, GLF and regulators to make this happen.”
The Restore Trust initiative is built on two core principles and pillars.
The first is, One Consortium, that will bring together the entire international communications ecosystem in a new, inclusive, not for profit organisation. It aims to be launched at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
One Consortium will work to agree and drive adoption in the ecosystem of a range of vendor-neutral solutions to fight nuisance communications.
It will also engage with NRAs globally to establish a joint, opt-in, governance framework to fight nuisance communications. The global forum aims to be established before the second quarter of 2024.
The second is a new, global, multilateral collaboration forum for NRAs. This opt-in forum will allow participating NRAs to align their views on guidelines and recommendations to fight nuisance communications originating from abroad and establish a framework between NRAs and with the industry.
NRAs will be able to engage with the industry (through One Consortium) to provide guidance and discuss solutions.
"The Restore Trust initiative, announced last May at the International Telecoms Week (ITW), is progressing at impressive speed, both in the industry and with regulators,” said Philippe Millet, founder and chairman of the i3Forum.
“GSMA’s and GLF’s public support and active collaboration are key to successfully bringing the entire ecosystem together and allow the industry and the regulators globally to engage in a positive and fruitful cooperation to combat illegal / unwanted communications.
