STIR/SHAKEN Attestation A, B, and C for Insurance Agents

TL;DR

Every outbound US call is signed by your carrier at one of three STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels. A means the carrier verified your identity and confirmed you are entitled to the calling number. B means it verified your identity but not the number. C means it verified neither. Downstream carriers trust A, deprioritize B, and often block C. Most insurance agents are silently sitting at B, which quietly throttles whether the phone even rings.

What do STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels A, B, and C actually mean?

Attestation is the trust signal an originating carrier attaches to your call when it cryptographically signs it under the SHAKEN framework. The three levels are defined in the ATIS standard and referenced by the FCC at 47 CFR 64.6301:

• Full attestation (A): the carrier has a direct authenticated relationship with you and has confirmed you are authorized to use the calling number. This is the only level downstream carriers fully trust.
• Partial attestation (B): the carrier knows who you are but cannot vouch that the specific number is legitimately yours. Common when numbers are hosted, ported, or routed through a reseller.
• Gateway attestation (C): the carrier is only passing the call along (often from an international gateway) and can attest to nothing about the originator or the number.

If you want the plain-English primer on how the framework works end to end, start with our STIR/SHAKEN for insurance agents guide and come back here for the level-by-level mechanics.

Why are most insurance agents stuck at attestation B?

Because the attestation level is decided by the relationship between your number and the carrier that signs the call, not by anything you say or do on the call itself. Agents land on B for structural reasons:

• The dialer vendor or telecom reseller signs the call, but the number is hosted or ported and not provisioned directly under that carrier's verified inventory.
• The calling number was bought from one provider and is being dialed through another, so the signing carrier cannot confirm provenance.
• The business identity is verified, but the carrier never completed the number-level authorization that A requires.

None of those are visible from the agent seat. You can have perfect consent, a clean script, and a registered business and still sign every call at B because of how the number is plumbed.

How does a low attestation level throttle your contact rate?

Downstream carriers and their analytics partners feed attestation into the same risk models that drive "Spam Likely" and "Scam Likely" labels. A call signed at A starts with the benefit of the doubt. A call signed at B or C starts with a strike against it, and that strike compounds with call volume, complaint rate, and number age. The practical result is fewer rings, more straight-to-voicemail, and faster reputation decay on the number. Attestation is upstream of reputation: a number stuck at B burns its reputation faster and recovers slower, which is why level is a clean-DID prerequisite, not a nice-to-have.

How do you move your numbers from attestation B to full attestation A?

Full attestation requires that the carrier signing your calls both knows you and can confirm the number is yours. The path to A:

• Provision your calling numbers directly under the carrier (or BYOC arrangement) that signs your outbound traffic, rather than dialing borrowed or resold numbers through a third party.
• Complete the carrier's know-your-customer and number-authorization steps so the number is tied to your verified identity in their system.
• Keep your business identity, RMD filing, and number ownership consistent across every provider in the call path so nothing downgrades the signature mid-route.

This is also where porting strategy matters: moving numbers onto the right carrier of record is often the single change that lifts a whole pool from B to A. Sequence it carefully against your other regulatory obligations in the 2026 telephony regulation outlook.

How can you verify the attestation level your own calls carry?

You cannot see attestation from the dialer UI, so you have to measure it:

• Place test calls to handsets on the major carriers and to a STIR/SHAKEN test-number service that reports the received attestation level.
• Ask the carrier or dialer vendor that signs your traffic to confirm, in writing, what attestation level your numbers are provisioned for.
• Monitor for "Verified" or checkmark caller-ID display on receiving handsets, which only appears for fully attested calls on participating carriers.

Do not take "STIR/SHAKEN is handled" as an answer. Handled usually means the calls are signed, not that they are signed at A.

What does the Robocall Mitigation Database have to do with attestation?

The Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) is the FCC registry where voice service providers and the businesses behind outbound traffic certify their robocall mitigation practices. Carriers are required to block traffic from originators that are not properly represented in the RMD, and an incomplete or inconsistent RMD posture is one reason a carrier will refuse to grant full attestation. If your numbers and identity are not cleanly represented in the database, you can be capped at B by policy regardless of your number provisioning. Our FCC Robocall Mitigation Database guide for agencies walks through the filing itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is attestation B good enough for compliant insurance calls?

It is not blocked, but it is not safe either. B is "legal but throttled": your calls still complete, yet they carry a downgraded trust signal that pushes them toward spam labeling and lower answer rates. For a high-volume outbound shop, sitting at B leaves measurable contact rate on the table compared with A.

Does having TCPA consent improve my attestation level?

No. Attestation is a carrier-side trust signal about identity and number ownership, and consent is a separate legal obligation about whether you are allowed to call. You need both, but documented consent does nothing to raise attestation. Keep them tracked separately and pair this guide with the 2026 TCPA consent rules for agent dialers.

Can I get full attestation on numbers I ported in?

Yes, once the porting is complete and the carrier of record both verifies your identity and authorizes the number under your account. Ported numbers often sit at B during and immediately after the transition, then qualify for A once provisioning and RMD records line up.

Sources cited in this analysis?

• FCC, Call Authentication Trust Anchor, 47 CFR 64.6301
• FCC, Robocall Mitigation Database
• ATIS SHAKEN signing standard, which defines the attestation A, B, and C levels