Beyond the phone number: the future of digital identity & brand trust. At MEF Leadership Forum Canada 2026, Nicholas Rossman, Director of Programmes - Mobile Ecosystem Forum, led a discussion with Mark Wert, Strategic Account Director - Hiya, Bill LaRuffa, VP Commercial Sales & Strategic Partnerships - SOMOS, and Roddy Lindsay, Founder & CEO - TexterID, examining the challenges of establishing trusted digital identities across voice and messaging, including brand verification, number authentication, cross-channel fraud prevention and industry collaboration. The panellists highlighted the gap between verifying a sender behind the scenes and giving consumers clear, visible proof of identity. Roddy Lindsay shared an example from a US political campaign in which a message was linked to a verified sender, yet recipients could not immediately identify who was behind it. He pointed to Rich Communication Services (RCS) as a way to improve transparency through branded profiles displaying verified business names and logos. However, wider adoption will also require consumer education to help people distinguish authenticated business messages from ordinary messages sent from phone numbers. Mark Wert emphasised that fraud prevention must extend across communication channels, as scams can begin with a text message and move to a phone call to persuade victims to disclose payment details or sensitive information. He outlined how real-time call analytics, scam-intent detection and in-call warnings can help protect consumers before financial losses occur. He also highlighted the need to assess risk throughout the call rather than relying solely on checks performed before a call connects. Bill LaRuffa discussed the importance of telephone number integrity, particularly in cases of SIM swapping and account takeover, where criminals can intercept one-time passcodes and gain access to financial accounts. He explained how SIM-swap signals can support additional security checks and how call authentication initiatives can help verify that businesses have the right to use specific telephone numbers. This would allow carriers to identify and block spoofed calls, although fragmented systems and complex integrations remain significant challenges. The conversation also addressed the growing sophistication of fraud as AI advances. The panellists stressed that no single technology can address every threat, making collaboration between mobile operators, technology providers and enterprises essential. At the same time, security measures must remain affordable, respect data privacy and avoid creating unnecessary friction for legitimate communications. Looking ahead, the panellists identified opportunities to strengthen trust through more consistent authentication practices and improved message integrity. With technology companies such as Google and Apple playing a greater role in messaging, expectations around security are rising, including the need to prevent unauthorised changes to messages as they travel through the communications chain. The discussion concluded that a layered approach to authentication, supported by industry-wide collaboration, will be critical to making voice and messaging more secure and helping consumers recognise who they can trust. To explore more insights from this discussion and other sessions, watch the full show on MEF Leadership Forum Canada 2026 or listen to the MEFCast. * Previous PostMEF CONNECTS Enterprise Communications USA 2026 - in pictures * Next PostSocial Media and Kids... Would Design Changes Achieve More Than a Ban?

Bouygues Telecom has become the first mobile operator in France to offer network-level nuisance call protection without requiring an app download. The service, powered by Hiya Protect Spam Analytics, uses AI algorithms to detect fraudulent calls in real time through a database processing over 28 billion call events monthly. According to Hiya's research, French consumers receive an average of 11.7 unwanted calls weekly, with 78% ignoring or declining unrecognised numbers. The Anti-Spam solution analyses caller behaviour including creation date, call volume, and duration to identify potential spam. The service launches on 5 October for consumer customers at €2 per month per line, and on 12 October for business customers at €1 per month. It complements Bouygues Telecom's existing Branded Calling feature, which helps legitimate businesses identify themselves to recipients.

TRAI seeks IT Act powers to crack down on Truecaller, Hiya over spam tagging of business calls. TRAI asks for enforcement powers under the Information Technology (IT) Act to take action against caller identification applications such as Truecaller. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sought greater enforcement powers under the Information Technology (IT) Act to take action against caller identification applications such as Truecaller, Hiya and Whoscall for allegedly marking legitimate business calls as spam. TRAI asks for IT Act powers from Ministry to crack down on Truecaller. The move comes as the telecom regulator raises concerns over official business numbers, including those beginning with the 1400 and 1600 series, being incorrectly flagged or blocked by these platforms. According to TRAI, such mislabelling disrupts communication between businesses, financial institutions, healthcare providers, government agencies and the public. Officials have warned that if legitimate calls continue to be flagged, businesses may increasingly shift to using regular mobile numbers to reach customers. Such a trend, TRAI believes, could undermine ongoing efforts to curb spam calls and make it more difficult for consumers to distinguish genuine calls from fraudulent ones. India has stepped up efforts to combat spam and scam calls in recent years, with millions of consumers receiving unsolicited or fraudulent calls every day. While caller identification apps play an important role in helping users identify suspicious callers, TRAI argues that legitimate organisations also require dependable communication channels for critical customer and public service outreach. The regulator's proposal aims to strike a balance between consumer protection and business communication by introducing greater accountability for digital caller identification platforms without compromising users' ability to detect fraudulent calls. At present, TRAI cannot take direct action against apps such as Truecaller because they fall outside the jurisdiction of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and are governed under a different regulatory framework. The regulator has therefore sought powers to initiate action for violations under the IT Act rather than regulate the applications directly. While Truecaller has maintained that it complies with applicable regulations, TRAI officials have argued that the absence of enforcement powers limits the regulator's ability to address repeated instances of incorrect call labelling. According to officials, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have agreed in principle to TRAI's proposal. However, a final decision on granting the regulator additional powers is still awaited.