“Whenever and wherever Congress and the courts give us the authority, the commission will push hard for strong, pro-consumer limits to robocalls and other unwanted calls”, Wheeler said. Despite this fact, current protection against unwanted calls, such as the FTC’s Do Not Call list, may not necessarily be sufficient.
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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that robocalls and telemarketing calls are the biggest source of consumer complaints directed toward the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC does not require communications companies to offer blocking and filtering services but says the regulator has “strongly encouraged providers to offer these services” at no charge to customers. According to Tech Times, he reiterated that there is nothing in the rules of the FCC and its orders that prevent telcos from offering the service. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to do more, and is urging phone companies to offer call-blocking services to customers. The Federal Communications Commission is so sick of robocalls that the government agency sent letters to the likes of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, among others, to do something about it.
Asking the CEOs of the mentioned phone companies to take immediate steps in the direction of developing robocall-blocking technology, Wheeler said that the reason why consumers continue to receive robocalls is “due in large part to industry inaction”.
The U.S. Communications agency has introduced 13 enforcement actions to fight robocallers since 2013.
Pic: ReutersWASHINGTON: The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Friday pressed major USA phone companies to take immediate steps to make technology that blocks unwanted automated calls available to consumers at no charge. In 2015, the FCC fined a Florida company almost $3 million for illegal calls promoting travel deals. The agency had previously ruled that carriers have the ability to offer call-blocking technology to their subscribers. Reuters is reporting that in a blog written by Wheeler on Friday, he said he wants answers from the companies “within 30 days with their concrete, actionable solutions to address these issues”. With most of the automated phone calls now being illicitly placed by scammers, the FCC reportedly receives complaints in hundreds of thousands every year.
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The FCC said a year ago it agreed that phone companies should not block calls without customers permission. It remains to see if the carrier firms will finally begin the development and implementation of robocall-blocking system.
