Wholesale glossary
STIR/SHAKEN is the North American framework for attesting that a call’s claimed origin is legitimate, using cryptographic signatures carried in the signalling. Full attestation (A) means the operator knows the subscriber and the number; partial (B) means a business relationship exists; gateway (C) means the origin cannot be verified. International traffic typically enters at C.
Why it matters
It is regulatory necessity in the US and Canada and increasingly a trust signal elsewhere. For international carriers there is a strategic angle: the more origin verification you can genuinely perform, the stronger the attestation you can offer, and the less of your traffic lands at the bottom of the trust pile.
What practitioners watch
Ask any partner signing your calls whose certificate is used and what attestation level your traffic receives. Delegated signing is common; owning your certificate under contract is the stronger position.
Related: Network Security & Compliance · CLI · A-Number