The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued cease-and-desist letters yesterday to three voice service providers, warning the providers that all their downstream traffic would be frozen in 48 hours if they don’t stop trafficking robocalls.
According to an FCC press release, the Traceback Commission identified suspicious traffic and then traced it to networks operated by thinQ, Airespring and Hello Hello Miami. In addition, thinQ was identified as a source of the illegal traffic by the office of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.
“There are far too many phone companies that count illegal robocallers among their clients, and that’s bad business,” FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel said in a press release. “It is illegal to allow these junk calls to flood consumers’ phones, and there are consequences for phone companies that do not take immediate action to stop participating in these schemes.”
This is the third group of letters sent to companies suspected of supporting robocalls. To date, “more than a dozen” voice service providers have received such letters. Earlier recipients all have “committed to take actions to stop the flow of robocalls on their networks,” according to the FCC press release about the FCC robocall warnings. The press release did not specify what actions they committed to, whether those commitments were fulfilled or whether a “commitment” would satisfy the 48 hour deadline for the three carriers cited yesterday.
Two of the earlier cease-and-desist letters were sent last May. The recipients — VaultTel Solutions and Prestige DR VoIP – were given 48 hours to take action. Other networks would be authorized to block their traffic if they failed to inform the Traceback Commission and the FCC within two weeks of the steps they had taken to mitigate the robocalls.
