The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to stop robocalling, and in his latest public policy letter to the major phone companies, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced a new task force to battle the bots.
The Robocalling Strike Force, according to Yahoo! Tech, will aim to “weed out robocalling” and “accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions to abate the proliferation of robocalls and to make recommendations to the FCC on the role government can play in this battle.”
In the letter, Wheeler asked AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to head up the strike force, a move that Yahoo! Tech calls “interesting” due to the fact that in May, Stephenson said “AT&T did not have the ‘authority’ to integrate robocall-blocking technology into its network.” In any event, Wheeler said in the letter that “giving consumers meaningful control over the calls and texts they receive will require collective action by the industry.” He said that he feels AT&T will lead the industry in this effort with the strike force and an effective action plan.
Additionally, Wheeler proposed a “Do Not Originate” list that “theoretically includes registered phone numbers of government agencies and other entities whose numbers are constantly spoofed by scammers.” Phone companies can ideally see which ones are from international callers and block them if they are robocalls.
No details on an exact action plan were given, but AT&T promised to move forward with better caller ID standards in the future, and Wheeler told the Consumerist that the action plan will provide “consumers with robust robocall-blocking solutions.” He urged major phone companies to provide their own plans within 60 days.
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