Branded calling: the unknown number finally gets a face

A customer calls you back about a complaint. A bank calls about suspicious transactions. A courier lets you know he’s on his way. Every one of these is a call the recipient would want to pick up. But the screen only shows ten digits, and ten digits without context feel like risk. Hiya reports that 86% of consumers let an unknown number ring out. Vodafone cites similar figures: almost 60% miss important calls, and more than 70% of anonymous calls go unanswered. That’s not a small leak in the pipeline. That’s a hole that revenue, service, and trust fall straight through.

Branded calling closes that hole. Name, logo, sometimes even a reason for the call, visible before anyone even picks up. Not a trick, but a verified identity confirmed through the network operator.

In the United States, this has been running at full speed for years. STIR/SHAKEN authenticates every call, and three specialized players each serve their own carriers: First Orion works with T-Mobile and Boost, while TNS and TransUnion serve the rest of the major players. Verizon and T-Mobile then sell branded calling as a ready-made business product.

Here too, it’s the vendors doing the work, not the carriers themselves. Hiya and First Orion strike deals independently of each other, network by network, country by country. Hiya now operates with all three major UK mobile operators, serves more than 90% of the German market through Deutsche Telekom and O2 Telefónica, and signed with Bouygues in France in June 2026. First Orion is following a similar path: it started with Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone in Germany, went live in the UK via Vodafone, and with Spain already covered, is expanding further into France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands this year.

The common thread is CAMARA, the open standardization project behind GSMA Open Gateway. CAMARA isn’t a vendor itself and sells nothing. It simply makes sure that number authentication and brand registration line up across different carriers and vendors, so a vendor doesn’t need to build a whole new technical connection for every country. The standard actually speeds up the vendor race, rather than making it unnecessary.

Germany is leading, with both Hiya and First Orion already active at Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, and O2. The UK is right behind, with coverage at all major operators, mostly through Hiya. France is joining over the course of 2026, with Bouygues already live and Orange and others in the pipeline. Spain already has a commercial product live through Orange Empresas. The Netherlands is on First Orion’s list as an expansion market for this year, but a live product isn’t there yet. That’s exactly why this is the moment to move, rather than wait for a vendor to make that choice for us.

Two use cases stand out, and it’s no coincidence that they’re the two closest to what Sound of Data already does well.

Customer service callbacks. A customer requests a callback, gets that promise, and then ignores the call because the number looks unfamiliar. A waste of every effort that went into it. With a label like “calling back about your complaint” or “confirming your appointment,” an unknown number turns into an expected call. High intent on both sides, little legal complexity, and the fastest path to a working pilot.

Donors and charities. For organizations like Postcode Loterij, there’s a unique opportunity here. From July 1, 2026, stricter telemarketing rules apply in the Netherlands, but charities and lotteries that donate to good causes keep an exception: calling existing and former customers remains allowed, under conditions. That keeps telesales relevant for these organizations, right as many other sectors watch that door close. Branded calling strengthens that further. A pilot at a non-profit saw the answer rate rise by 42%. For donor retention, renewals, and service communication, that’s a directly measurable result, not a replacement for cold acquisition, but a boost to a relationship that already exists.

Let’s be honest: even in the countries where it’s already running, it doesn’t work across borders yet. Branded calling is, for now, a service within one provider’s own network. Call from a Vodafone number to a customer at another provider, and an unknown number often still shows up, with no name or logo. Exactly the problem the US had too, until vendors built cross-carrier solutions there. Whether and how Europe closes that gap, through CAMARA, through vendors, or through both, isn’t settled yet. As soon as there’s movement, you’ll hear it from us.

We don’t have a concrete answer with a ready-made solution yet. This market is moving fast, and that’s exactly why we’re keeping a close eye on it. Which vendor scales fastest, which carrier goes live first in the Netherlands, which rules end up deciding things. We’re mapping all of that, and as soon as there’s a concrete offer ready for customer service callbacks or donor communication, you’ll hear it from us first.

For the Netherlands, we’re already seeing the first movement. KPN, Odido, and Vodafone are currently working on implementing verified and branded calling, and the product is expected to become available here in the first quarter of 2027. That means the preparation time starts now, not once it goes live.

We believe branded calling will be just as much of a given in a year or two as a verified WhatsApp account already is today. And we want to be ready for it, together with you.

Want to stay up to date on developments around branded calling? Get in touch with Sound of Data, and we’ll keep you personally informed as soon as there’s news.