Consumers Union, National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, National Association of Consumer Advocates, Public Citizen, and Public Knowledge urge the FCC to:
- Establish a deadline by which the voice service providers must implement an effective methodology to authenticate and block all spoofed calls unless they are within a narrow set of appropriate exceptions;
- Require the providers to offer advanced tools to block unwanted robocalls to all of their subscribers, at no additional charge by a date certain;4 and
- Clarify that unblocking requests must be handled in way that ensures objective application of criteria. Any unblocking shall:
- Limit unblocking to calls that have 1) authenticated caller ID information; 2) are not illegal; and 3) do not include calls blocked at the request of the subscriber;
- Limit any “universal whitelist” to true emergency calls only; and
- Costs should be assessed to businesses who seek to participate in the system.
- To help assess the need for further action, the Commission should also require the phone companies to report sufficient information so that the Commission can evaluate the availability and effectiveness of carrier-provided call-blocking services.