Major Companies Join Hands For Robocalls Hunt Program

In a recent announcement, over 30 major communications and technology companies stated that they are collectively joining with the US government to eliminate “robocalls”. The regulators have labeled this prerecorded, automated phone call as a “scourge”.

The “Strike Force”, which consists of members from the Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Comcast Corp., AT&T Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc., attended a meeting with the US Federal Communications Commission recently to discuss the matter. AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson, who is also the chairman of the group, mentioned that they will meet FCC by October 19 with “concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions.”

The strike force is planning to block calls from spoofed phone numbers by implementing caller ID verification. Furthermore, a list named as “Do Not Originate” will be issued, which will prevent the scamsters from using legitimate phone numbers. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, had earlier asked major companies to take necessary steps to block robocalls, which were made by either scam artists or telemarketers. Wheeler also stated that robocalls, is a major complaint registered by customers and added that, “this scourge must stop.”

“The bad guys are beating the good guys with technology.” Wheeler said in a press release. He has also stated earlier that robocalls continue “in large part to industry inaction.” In the meantime, Stephenson highlighted the extent and complexity of this issue. “This is going to require more than individual company initiatives and one-off blocking apps. Robocallers are a formidable adversary, notoriously hard to stop,” he said.

Network designers, carriers, operating system developers, and device makers, are all members of this strike force. FCC has also asked the companies to filter and block robocalls at zero extra charges. Stephenson added, “We have to come out of this with a comprehensive play book for all of us to go execute. We have calls that are perfectly legal, but unwanted, like telemarketers and public opinion surveyors. At the other end of the spectrum, we have millions of calls that are blatantly illegal.”

The technical experts, who represent each of the companies, have engaged in a “preliminary conversations about short- and longer-term initiatives,” according to Stephenson. However, AT&T vice president of federal regulatory issues, Joan Marsh, commented that this issue is complicated. “We have been wrangling with this problem long enough to know there is no silver bullet. Nothing by itself is going to do it,” Marsh said.