PANORA TELCO • ( 641 ) 755-2424 | GUTHRIE CENTER COMMUNICATIONS • ( 641 ) 332-2000 Before You Dig, Make a Call to Iowa One Call Spring is here and construction and digging projects will soon be underway. Remember, there are many underground utilities that may present a problem if disturbed, and unmarked services may be dangerous if hit. It’s important to call Iowa One Call at 811 or 800-292-8989 at least 48 business hours in advance of digging, so underground services such as gas, water, telephone, electric, cable TV, and sewer can be located and marked. Locate requests are taken 24 hours a day/7 days a week. When you call, you’ll be given a 9-digit ‘dig ticket number’ which can be used for reference throughout the project. If damages occur as a result of a dig and Iowa One Call has not been notified prior to the excavation, the homeowner or excavator may be liable for repair costs, loss of product/ services or other related charges. Make it a priority to call before you dig this spring and summer. Not only is it the safe way to dig, it’s the law. Each day, Americans receive millions of unwanted phone calls. These include spoofed robocalls, when a caller transmits misleading or inaccurate caller ID information to deceive recipients into thinking the call is from someone they know or can trust. For example, a call could appear to be from your town when it’s actually coming from another country. These types of fraudulent calls are not simply an annoyance. Robocall schemes take approximately $10 billion from consumers in scams each year. What’s more, they’re degrading consumer confidence in the voice network—by some estimates, more than half of all calls are not being answered. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been working for years to address the problem of spoofed robocalls. In March 2020, the FCC adopted new rules requiring all originating and terminating voice service providers to implement caller ID authentication using STIR/SHAKEN technological standards in the Internet Protocol (IP) portions of their networks by June 30, 2021. STIR/SHAKEN stands for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN). It requires carriers to “sign” calls they originate, preventing spoofed caller ID data and guaranteeing that the caller ID information that appears on phones is trustworthy. According to the FCC, “Widespread deployment of STIR/SHAKEN will reduce the effectiveness of illegal spoofing, allow law enforcement to identify bad actors more easily, and help phone companies identify calls with illegally spoofed caller ID information before those calls reach their subscribers.” Panora Telco and Guthrie Center Communications implemented caller ID authentication in February 2021. This is a free service for residential and business customers, which works automatically to identify and block unwanted robocalls before the phone even rings. On the first month caller ID authentication was in use, 21.60% of calls (approximately 16,050) were identified as bad actors and blocked. Andrew Randol, General Manager/CEO, said, “Panora Telco and Guthrie Center Communications are thrilled to provide caller ID authentication. This technology will be hugely beneficial to our customers by reducing both the number of unwanted calls they receive and their exposure to scams.” If you have questions about caller ID authentication, please call Panora Telco at (641) 755-2424 or Guthrie Center Communications at (641) 332-2000. New Caller ID Authentication Blocks Spoofed Robocalls
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