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NAFCU, trades meet with FCC on ATIS/SIP Task Force SIP Code 603 efforts
NAFCU, along with several trade associations, Tuesday met with Federal Communications Commission staff in Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s office to review the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Forum NNI Task Force’s efforts to develop an enhanced version of SIP Code 603.
SIP Code 603 was designed to signal to callers, like credit unions, that a call recipient declined a call, but the notification does not distinguish between instances of actual recipient declinations and more common network-level call blocking.
Unfortunately, blocking all calls that are potentially, but not confirmed as, unlawful calls, is not helpful for credit unions trying to relay important information to their members. When credit unions receive SIP Code 603, the notice offers very little detail on why the calls were blocked, who chose to block the call (the recipient or the carrier), and what can be done to mitigate it being marked as unlawful for the future.
The association previously joined a group of trades to write to the ATIS SIP Forum NNI Task Force, which is the governing body that regulates call network providers, urging for additional clarity when callers receive a SIP Code 603 notification.
The group offered support for the adoption of SIP Code 608 to provide immediate notification of analytics-based blocking, but if the FCC instead continues to allow use of SIP Code 603, the group would support an enhanced version “that would allow the caller to distinguish between a 603+ Code that indicates the called party declined the call from the receipt of a 603+ Code that signals that the Voice Service Provider blocked the call.”
NAFCU continues to advocate for additional clarity and guidance to help credit unions better reach their members.