The University Of Utah: How You Answer Your Phone Matters

Press release from The University of Utah - Announcements:

November 17, 2021

Under the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was granted the power to implement new tools to fight unwanted, and often illegal, robocalls and text messages, providing consumers more protection against criminals.

In response, the FCC mandated the STIR/SHAKEN caller identification framework, which requires phone companies to verify that the caller ID information transmitted with a call matches the caller’s real phone number. Due to the new framework, however, legitimate organizations such as the University of Utah and University of Utah Health may be incorrectly blocked or labeled as a scam or spam.

To prevent any disruption in service, UIT has registered all university-owned telephone numbers with businesses that provide call verification services. This should prevent U phone numbers from being blocked or labeled as fraud.

Verification service companies may call university phone numbers at random to confirm their affiliation with the university. All university-owned numbers must indicate their U affiliation to prevent being blocked or labeled as spam or scams. Going forward, when answering calls to your university phone number, please identify your affiliation with the University of Utah or University of Utah Health. Similarly, when recording voicemail greetings, please identify your U affiliation in the message.

If you believe your university-owned phone number has been blocked or mislabeled, please contact the UIT Help Desk at 801-581-4000, option 2. For more information about the TRACED Act, FCC regulations, or call verification process, please visit this IT Knowledge Base article.

If you have any questions or concerns about the new regulations or verification process, please contact the UIT Help Desk at 801-581-4000, option 2.

This press release was produced by The University of Utah - Announcements. The views expressed here are the author’s own.