The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken steps to affirm the rights of voice service providers to block robocalls based on their analysis of calling patterns.
In a Declaratory Ruling issued in early June, the Commission empowered service providers to proactively protect their customers from unwanted robocalls by blocking them by default, based on what the FCC called “reasonable” call analytics. Under the Ruling, customers would have to be informed in advance of a service provider implementing default blocking, and be given the opportunity to opt out of the default call blocking.
In addition, the Ruling also allows service providers to provide their customers with access to more customizable opt-in tools that would enable them to create a “white list” of phone numbers from which to accept calls.
The Declaratory Ruling complements a recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted by the Commission that would require voice providers to implement the SHAKEN/STIR caller ID authentication framework.
Read the FCC’s statement on the rights of service providers to block robocalls.
