Twilio Reaches Branded Calling Milestone Across AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Networks

Twilio Reaches Branded Calling Milestone Across AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Networks

People rarely answer unknown numbers anymore. If a call comes in without a name attached, most consumers treat it like spam, which means legitimate outreach from pharmacies, banks, or delivery drivers also get ignored.

Branded Calling closes that gap. Businesses show a verified branded name, logo, and reason on the recipient’s device to establish trust before the recipient decides to pick up. Trust begins with transparency, and recognition is what turns an unknown number into an answered call.

Branded Calling Across Major U.S. Carriers

The whole point of Branded Calling is that consumers recognize legitimate outreach from businesses, which is only possible if the business can present their verified identity to reach consumers regardless of the network they’re on.

That’s why we are excited to announce that we’ll be expanding Branded Calling to include AT&T (currently in Pilot) in addition to our existing coverage across T-Mobile and Verizon.

We’ve been working toward this milestone since 2021 when we helped execute the industry’s first known wireless call using Rich Call Data (RCD) over the public switched telephone network (PSTN), authenticated with STIR/SHAKEN. Everything since then has been about turning that proof of concept into something enterprises can use at scale. We documented the technical approach, extended support from T-Mobile to Verizon, and brought Branded Calling to general availability. Most importantly, we saw the impact from customers like CareSignal, a healthcare engagement platform, who saw a 21% increase in call answer rates.

Establishing Trust Beyond the Call

While voice still carries high-stakes moments, a customer conversation rarely lives in one channel. It moves from a call to a text thread to an inbox and back. When that same verified brand carries from one step to the next, trust compounds.

The same verified brand that rings through on a branded call also needs to show up on RCS, WhatsApp, Email, and Apple Messages for Business. Your brand identity, and the customer context, needs to carry through every channel that matters so trust turns into recognition, recognition into engagement, and engagement into revenue.

What’s Next with Branded Communications

Trusted, branded communications are becoming table stakes for customer engagement. The industry has shifted because customers are skeptical of every call or message they receive. With AT&T now joining T-Mobile and Verizon in supporting Branded Calling for Twilio customers, we’re excited for the impact customers will see from trusted digital communications.

Melissa Blassingame is a senior telecom leader at Twilio where she helps shape the company's connectivity products, policies, and trust programs. With nearly 20 years in telecom, she drives Twilio's KYC and KYT initiatives and represents the company across CTIA, USTelecom, SIP Forum, and the i3Forum One Consortium.

Robert McCulley is a Product Manager at Twilio focused on Trusted Voice communications. Passionate about protecting the human connection behind every phone call by working to restore trust in the PSTN and driving telecom fraud to zero.

James Lapic is Senior Director of Product Management at Twilio where he oversees the global relationships with Carrier and OTT partners including Apple, Meta, and Google.