The battle against robocalls is picking up steam with new FCC robocall action.
Sprint and Frontier recently took steps to thwart the annoying robocalls; now the Federal Communications Commission wants carriers to go further.
The FCC wants carriers that allow international robocalls into U.S. networks to fully participate in efforts to trace back those calls. Rosemary Harold, the FCC enforcement bureau chief sent letters to seven gateway service providers — All Access, Globex, Piratel, Talkie, Telcast, ThinQ, and Third Base — asking for their support in tracking down the originators of illegal spoofed foreign robocalls.
FCC Robocall Action
The seven companies are U.S.-based voice providers that accept foreign call traffic and terminate it to U.S. consumers. These companies are used as gateways into the United States for robocalls that originate overseas. As the point of entry for this traffic into the U.S. telephone network, these companies are uniquely situated to assist government and industry efforts to combat scam robocalls, the FCC said.
The letters announced today are the latest example of the government’s efforts to combat illegal robocalls.
Late last year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced actions to stop service providers that facilitated hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls to American consumers. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it sent letters to 19 VoIP providers warning that facilitating illegal telemarketing robocalling is against the law.
In a related action, last week FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated to his colleagues for their consideration proposed new rules that would establish a registration process for selecting a consortium to conduct private-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls. If adopted, the proposal would implement the recently enacted Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act). Industry participation in call traceback efforts has proved useful in the Commission’s enforcement efforts to combat illegal robocalling and spoofing, according to a press release.
You can’t just “ask” for cooperation, it must be an ORDER with severe punishments for failure to comply! These companies have known for years, that transporting these types of calls, was NOT in the public interest, yet they have continued to do it.
Once these calls are dumped into the U.S. telephone network, they tie up “trunks” that could be otherwise used for legitimate telephone calls.
All too often, customers will hear, “I’m sorry, all circuits are busy now. Will you please try you call again later” This is just another price, we as customers pay, because of the robocall industry. They seriously interfere with legitimate telephone communication.