What Is STIR/SHAKEN and Why It Affects Your Calls

You can be perfectly TCPA-compliant and still watch your answer rate collapse, because a separate system — call authentication — decides how carriers treat your traffic. STIR/SHAKEN is the backbone of that system, and it's worth understanding even though it isn't a law you can violate.

What STIR/SHAKEN actually does

STIR/SHAKEN is a framework that lets carriers cryptographically sign and verify caller ID, so the receiving network can tell whether the number you're calling from is really yours and hasn't been spoofed. Calls get an attestation level — full, partial, or gateway — reflecting how confident the originating carrier is about the caller.

Why it affects you

Unsigned or low-attestation traffic is treated with more suspicion. It's more likely to be labeled "Spam Likely," more likely to be filtered, and less likely to be answered. If your calls aren't getting picked up, weak attestation is a common and overlooked cause, separate from anything about your list.

What you can do

• Ask your carrier or VoIP provider how your traffic is being attested, and push for full attestation on numbers you legitimately own.
• Register your numbers with the major analytics providers so they're associated with a real business.
• Keep your calling behavior clean — high volume, short-duration, high-complaint traffic gets flagged regardless of signing.
• Scrub your lists so you're not calling people who hang up and complain, which is what drives labeling in the first place.

Labeling and the TCPA are different problems that feed each other; we cover the labeling side in why your calls get labeled spam. Clean lists help both. Scrub yours free.

General information, not legal or technical advice.