The FCC voted to allow telephone providers to block all robocalls as a default with no opt-in from phone owners. The primary focus of this decision is to filter suspicious calls that pose a potential threat to personal security.
In the new law, phone companies block numbers that are robocalls and mark them as spammers. It is a valuable step towards protecting customers from fake and unwanted calls from telemarketers.
What does the industry think?
A recent statement from Ajit Pai, FCC chairman, states that these new rules and protocols are expected to come into action as soon as possible. By avoiding a flood of robocalls on busy networks, mobile companies follow the recent guidelines. This ruling will reduce customer complaints.
Mobile companies can no longer charge additional fees to customers while providing these services. This feature will be a required addition to all carriers. Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, while voting against some parts of this proposal, did agree that the FCC should not be expected to hold the responsibilities of blocking robocalls if the phone companies are allowed to charge for this service. All other five FCC commissioners voted to approve this decision.
What are the stats related to robocalls?
The robocall index presented by YouMail says that this May the count has reached 4.7 billion; however, it was 4.1 billion by June 2018. This issue has captured the attention of lawmakers worldwide as they continuously hear complaints from sufferers. To address this issue, the Senate passed, 97-1, a bill in May stating companies are allowed to pose a fine of $10,000 for every illegal call.
The FCC revealed that as per new regulations, big companies like AT&T and Verizon would also be able to monitor all the spoofed calls so that better protocols can be designed to filter out such fake numbers before they find a way to the customer mobile. The commission will provide proper legal safety to carriers following this decision.
