The big carriers don't want your contact-center traffic — and regulation is giving them cover. NobelBiz CEO Steven Bederman joins Carson Poppenger and Jacob Thorpe to explain exactly what's throttling outbound contact rates and what smart operators must do differently right now.
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Key takeaways
- Major carriers actively restrict contact-center traffic; regulation gives them cover to label, block, and de-prioritize outbound calls.
- False Answer Supervision (FAS) can silently waste 20–30% of 'connected' calls while the contact center is still billed for them.
- Aggregating 60+ carriers and routing away from high-FAS networks — not chasing the cheapest single carrier — is the path to higher contact rates.
- Roughly half of large BPO operations still run on-premise systems, creating both a risk and an opportunity as compliance pressures mount.
- Carrier quality is now table stakes; AI analytics, consent management, and deliberate sales-experience design are what differentiate top performers.
- Tracking the exact dollar value of a single contact allows operators to justify better carrier spend and prove CPA improvements to clients.
- The convergence of FCC regulation, carrier network restrictions, and rising voice prices represents a unique inflection point that demands a strategy rethink.
Why Outbound Calling Is Harder Than Ever
The five or six major carriers have made a strategic decision: they do not want contact-center traffic. Short-duration outbound calls — averaging as little as four seconds when unanswered — consume network bandwidth without generating meaningful revenue. Regulations like STIR/SHAKEN give those carriers political cover to restrict, label, and block call-center volume at scale. The result is a convergence of pressures that NobelBiz CEO Steven Bederman calls unprecedented in his decades in the industry.
The FAS Problem Nobody Talks About
One of the least-understood threats to contact rates is False Answer Supervision (FAS) — calls that register as “connected” but route to nowhere. Downstream carriers quietly set FAS thresholds of 20–30%, meaning nearly a third of nominally answered calls can vanish into the void while the contact center is still billed for them. Because carriers have no incentive to advertise this practice, most operators never see it on a report.
NobelBiz’s response is a smart-routing aggregation layer (SMRT) that pulls from at least 60 carriers across tier-1, tier-2, and tier-3 networks. Proprietary algorithms route calls away from high-FAS carriers in real time, surgically improving contact rates without requiring any changes inside the contact center’s own platform.
Cloud Adoption: Still Slower Than You Think
Despite widespread awareness of cloud benefits, Bederman estimates that roughly half of larger BPO seats remain on-premise. The barrier isn’t ignorance — it’s the cash-flow dependency of heavy contact-center overhead. A single DID migration for a large client took ten days and cost millions in lost productivity, even though the center ultimately achieved better contact rates and less call blockage afterward. The lesson: the transition cost is real, but so is the compounding cost of staying put.
Smarter Strategy Once You Have the Contact
Bederman frames carrier quality as table stakes — necessary but not sufficient. What separates thriving contact centers is what happens after the call connects:
- AI call analytics — transcript review and sentiment analysis to understand exactly what consumers are experiencing
- Consent-first dialing — calling only consumers who have opted in, which also reduces labeling risk
- Deliberate sales experience (SX) — treating each connection as a single, high-value opportunity rather than a volume game
- CPA tracking per contact — assigning a dollar value to each connect so routing and strategy improvements can be measured directly against margin
A Moment That Requires Triage
Bederman is candid that the current regulatory and carrier environment is unlike anything he has witnessed across three decades. FCC choices, big-carrier network policies, call-labeling systems, and rising wholesale voice prices are all moving in the same direction simultaneously. His prescription: contact-center veterans who believe they have “figured it out” must treat this moment as a reset and rebuild their outbound strategy from the ground up — or risk being left behind by operators who do.
The large carriers — the five or six big boys — none of them want call center traffic. Period. Zero.
— Steven Bederman
We can maneuver — it becomes surgical in nature where we're maneuvering you into higher contact rates.
— Steven Bederman
We're table stakes at this point. You guys are what makes a contact center thrive or be average.
— Steven Bederman
In the current environment, you're as new as everybody else is.
— Steven Bederman
Episode chapters
- 00:10 — Introductions & Guest Background
- 01:25 — Steven Bederman's Career: Touchstar, Vocalcom, Connect First, NobelBiz
- 07:00 — From Agent to CEO: Writing, Pain Points & Building Solutions
- 09:15 — Why Consumers Are Harder to Reach Than Ever
- 13:12 — Contact Centers as the Slowest Tech Adopters
- 16:47 — Carrier Aggregation & the NobelBiz SMRT Routing System
- 24:43 — Short-Duration Calls, FAS, and Hidden Carrier Cheating
- 31:51 — Contact Rate as a Dollar Value: CPA & Dialing Strategy
- 35:59 — Final Thoughts: A Moment That Demands Triage
Frequently asked questions
What is False Answer Supervision (FAS) and how does it hurt contact centers?
FAS is when a call registers as answered but routes to nowhere — essentially dead air. Some downstream carriers set FAS rates as high as 20–30%, meaning up to a third of billed 'connected' calls reach no one, silently draining contact rates and budgets.
Why don't major carriers want contact-center traffic?
Outbound contact-center calls are extremely short in duration — averaging around four seconds for unanswered attempts — which consumes network bandwidth without generating meaningful revenue. Regulations like STIR/SHAKEN give large carriers additional justification to restrict or label this traffic.
What is SMRT and how does NobelBiz use it to improve contact rates?
SMRT is NobelBiz's smart-routing aggregation system that pulls from at least 60 carriers across multiple tiers. Algorithms route calls away from high-FAS or low-quality carriers in real time, improving contact rates without requiring changes to the contact center's own platform.
How many BPO contact center seats are still on-premise?
According to Steven Bederman, approximately half of larger BPO seat counts are still running on-premise systems, despite the long-term availability and advantages of cloud-based CCaaS solutions.
How does TCPA compliance affect outbound dialing strategy?
TCPA compliance requires documented consumer consent before outbound calls are placed. Operating with proper consent not only reduces legal risk but also lowers the likelihood that calls get flagged or labeled as spam by carrier analytics systems.
What role does AI play in improving outbound call center performance?
AI-powered call analytics — including automatic transcription and sentiment analysis — help contact centers understand what consumers are actually experiencing on calls, identify coaching opportunities, and refine scripts and cadences to improve conversion rates.