Tata Communications, a leading provider of a new world of communications and chair of the Global FAS forum, an industry wide forum formed to deal with the growing problem of False Answer Supervision (FAS), today announced that it has disconnected several carriers as part of its proactive actions to stamp out this form of fraud in the industry
FAS occurs when the calling party:
– is charged for a completed call even though the. call was never connected
– is charged for call set-up time rather than actual conversation time
– is charged for his service provider’s deliberate attempt to re-route his call to automated messaging platforms..
Incidents of FAS have soared in the past few months to become a global industry problem, with the most rampant fraud in regions with high termination rates and many competing suppliers. Combating FAS is complicated by the many carriers reselling routes from other suppliers, making it hard to trace the fraud to its source.
Tata Communications plans to deploy automatic FAS detection capabilities in its network and take steps to prevent FAS. These steps include mandating that customers and suppliers use compliant VoIP platforms to connect to the Tata Communications network, conducting billing accuracy tests for new suppliers, and encouraging suppliers to adopt single-second billing intervals to reduce FAS occurrence. Tata Communications will also collaborate with global authorities to eradicate FAS