SkySwitch Resellers Should Capitalize on Nomorobo—Here’s How and Why

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If there’s one thing everyone can agree that needs to go away ASAP, it’s robocalls. This is a widely discussed issue that Eric Hernaez, Founder and President of SkySwitch, has addressed at a recent panel discussion at IT Expo 2019. Audience members at that panel asked about solutions for robocalls because they are simply becoming out of control—not only on personal cell phones, but even at the workplace.

In fact, according to an article by USA Today, Americans received 3.36 billion robocalls in April of 2018 alone. This equates to 1,297 robocalls every second. And if you look at the numbers, the amount of robocalls continue to climb. Not to mention, robocallers have gotten even smarter.

Nowadays, robocallers use “neighbor spoofing” technology, where they will use a local area code to encourage recipients to answer. Other than being a huge nuisance, the amount of money that fraudulent unwanted robocalls cost consumers is even more staggering. The Federal Trade Commission estimates this amount to be $9.95 billion annually.

What You Can Do to Take Action Against Robocalls Now

In a press release distributed in October of 2018, SkySwitch announced integration with Nomorobo, a spam filtering service. As stated in the release, Aaron Foss, Founder of Nomorobo, said, “While many residential landline telephone providers have implemented robocall blocking recently, this feature is not usually offered on business telephone systems. But we all know that businesses are not immune to robocalls, and we are very excited to see SkySwitch offer Nomorobo to its network of UCaaS providers.”

Robocall protection for workplaces isn’t yet very common—in fact, during the panel discussion aforementioned at IT Expo 2019, the audience members expressed that while they were familiar with solutions for personal use, they were interested in learning about what offerings white label UCaaS providers had for this problem.

At the panel discussion, Eric Hernaez explained that at this time, Nomorobo is the best way to combat robocalls and that SkySwitch is a provider that is integrated with their service.

How Does Nomorobo Work?

So first, let’s address why SkySwitch chose to integrate with Nomorobo. Nomorobo is a top-leading solution that has, to date, stopped over 900 million robocalls. And, their service has received the recognition of being the FTC Robocall Challenge winner as well as receiving the PCMag’s Editor Choice award.

At the enterprise level, Nomorobo offers a specialized data service that allows telecom network operators to identify a potential robocall before it rings the end user’s phone. Since SkySwitch is integrated with Nomorobo, SkySwitch is able to alert business telephone users that a call is potentially from a telemarketer and then let them choose how to handle it. The system can be configured to answer the call, send it to voicemail or just hang-up without disrupting users.

As explained in an article about Nomorobo by PCMag, not many carriers have integrated with Nomorobo, which means that many end users interested in using Nomorobo may not be able to take advantage of the service. This is why SkySwitch resellers should take full advantage of the Nomorobo integration.

Resolutions in the Pipeline for Robocalls

While we’re on the topic of robocalls, we can’t leave out the big-picture solutions that are in the works, such as a new senate bill that would hit robocallers with a $10,000 fine per call.

The proposed solution that has really stirred a lot of excitement is STIR/SHAKEN. In theory, this method would essentially require that every phone have a certificate of authenticity attached to it. A policy administrator overseen by the FCC would be in charge of handing out the certificates.

So, as NYMag sums up in simple terms how STIR/SHAKEN would work: if a user places an outbound phone call, the call would contain a certificate that verifies that the actual phone number lines up with the phone number it claims to be. Then, the phone call would be passed to the incoming carrier that is responsible for verifying the certificate’s public key against an encrypted private key.

While the authentication process sounds like a great idea, there are a few caveats to it:

  1. This method will only work in the U.S. as it’s currently envisioned today.
  2. STIR/SHAKEN will most likely add overhead to phone companies.
  3. Most importantly, the method has largely been in a testing phase with multiple unknown variables about how it would actually work in the real world. There’s no sure say in when, or even if, the solution will come into fruition.

How to Leverage Nomorobo’s Brand Recognition for Robocalls

It’s clear that for the time being, Nomorobo is the best solution available. If you’re a SkySwitch reseller, we recommend that you leverage the existing brand recognition of Nomorobo. It’s a top leader in the industry, so it works to any reseller’s advantage to proudly display the Nomorobo name rather than renaming or rephrasing it into something generic, like “spam filtering service”.

Consider adding a blurb about Nomorobo integration to your website’s services or features section and emphasize the mark that Nomorobo has made in the quest of stopping robocalls. Robocalls are a universal nuisance and chances are your customers have heard about Nomorobo.

Brand recognition is huge for developing trust with a potential client. By establishing that level of trust, it becomes easier to incite a prospect’s interest to listen in on all the benefits of switching to VoIP, and more specifically, switching to you as their VoIP provider.