Commission continues progress on proposed rulemaking to target “unlawful robocalls” with Dec. 11 meeting.
12/2/2019 10:00
An advisory committee of the Federal Communications Commission will revisit caller ID authentication at its Dec. 11 meeting.
The Consumer Advisory Committee will consider a recommendation from the Caller ID Authentication Working Group relative to certain aspects of the Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, according to a news release.
In the third notice of proposed rulemaking, the FCC seeks to encourage implementation of a framework for authenticating calls (SHAKEN/STIR framework) by proposing a safe harbor from liability under the call completion rules for voice service providers that choose to block calls, or a subset of calls, that are not authenticated under that framework. The commission also proposes to mandate adoption of SHAKEN/STIR if major voice service providers do not do so voluntarily by the end of 2019, and to create a mechanism to provide information to consumers about the effectiveness of providers’ “robocall solutions.”
In a speech at the “Robocall Symposium of The New England States” in Roxbury, Massachusetts Nov. 21, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said one of the main components of the FCC’s strategy against illegal robocalls has been “better caller ID authentication.”
The FCC adopted rules banning malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign calls during its Aug. 1 meeting, ACA previously reported.
Meanwhile, the FCC continues to pursue plans for major phone carriers to implement SHAKEN/STIR, Pai described in his speech.
If the phone carrier industry doesn’t implement SHAKEN/STIR by the end of the year, Pai said the FCC will proceed with voting on news rules mandating use of the framework.
Any safe harbor in the call authentication framework should narrowly apply to the blocking of calls that fail SHAKEN/STIR and only after carriers have fully implemented the framework, ACA International and a group of associations noted in comments to the FCC in July. This would minimize the likelihood of overbroad or erroneous call blocking.
When the SHAKEN/STIR framework is fully implemented, the commission should only permit blocking of calls that are not authenticated or are placed illegally. The framework must be designed to ensure that important, and often time-sensitive, calls that association members and other organizations place to their customers are not blocked, ACA added in its individual comments to the FCC on the notice of proposed rulemaking.
ACA will attend the Dec. 11 Consumer Advisory Committee meeting to provide updates on the caller ID authentication recommendation as the SHAKEN/STIR deadline approaches. Watch your email for updates in ACA Daily or subscribe here.
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FCC Adopts Rule Increasing Caller ID Spoofing Enforcement Options