The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the FCC is seeking input on the progress of robocalling initiatives from the government, industry and consumers for a staff report that it plans to prepare in conjunction with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. The report was mandated by the FCC in its November 2017 Call Blocking Order, which adopted rules allowing voice service providers to block calls from certain phone numbers as an effort to combat robocalling.

Specifically, the Public Notice seeks data on the types of blocking providers have been using since the Call Blocking Order took effect in 2018 and the progress of SHAKEN/STIR, an industry-developed set of protocols and operational procedures for caller ID authentication, which we’ve previously discussed in TCPAland. In addition, the Bureau is asking for details on tools voice service providers and third parties have been developing to identify and block unlawful robocalls, such as call labelling products which purport to identify when a call is coming from an unlawful robocaller.

Outside of data on call blocking efforts, the Bureau is also seeking general data on trends in unlawful robocalling and the effectiveness of traceback — a tool intended to be used for identifying unlawful robocallers.

Comments are due: July 20, 2018

Reply Comments are due: August 20, 2018