Washington, DC – May 18, 2023 – The Federal Communications Commission today adopted
new rules to further expand call blocking requirements to ensure even greater robocall
protections for consumers. The new rules extend several call blocking requirements to include
voice service providers that are not currently covered by FCC rules.
With the Report and Order adopted today, FCC rules will further enlist service providers in the
fight against unwanted robocalls by extending our 24-hour traceback requirement to cover all
voice service providers. Carriers will be required to support FCC and industry efforts to trace
illegal robocalls across various networks and back to their originating sources. The rules will
also require providers that originate illegal robocall traffic to block that traffic when notified by
the Commission.
The FCC will also now require all voice service providers to take reasonable and effective
steps to ensure that any immediate upstream provider from which they accept call traffic is not
using it to carry or process a high volume of illegal traffic.
The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking also adopted today will seek public comment on a
variety of other anti-robocall tools and strategies including requiring providers to adopt
analytics-based blocking, requiring providers to block based on do-not-originate lists, whether
to require the display of caller name information in certain cases, and increasing forfeitures for
voice service providers that fail to comply with the Commission’s rules. Today’s action
includes a Notice of Inquiry that will seek input on the tools voice service providers use to
combat illegal calls, including an industry tool known as a “honeypot,” and on the current state
of call labeling, including the extent of its use and its accuracy.
Robocalls persist as a significant problem for consumers. Unwanted call complaints continue
to be far-and-away the largest category of consumer complaints to the FCC, with
approximately 157,000 in 2020, 164,000 in 2021, 119,000 in 2022. One industry estimate
indicates that the average U.S. consumer receives 14 spam or fraud calls per month. And these
calls have real consumer consequences: according to the FTC, 20% of fraud reports it received
in 2022 had a phone call as the contact method and U.S. consumers reported a total of $798
million lost to fraud via phone call, with a median loss of $1,400.
I read the news today.