Legislative package signed this week also includes requirements on call authentication, building on federal rules enacted by the FCC.
11/11/2021 8:00
New York is building on federal actions to mitigate illegal robocalls with Gov. Kathy Hocul’s approval of a legislative package on call blocking and call authentication this week.
According to a news release from the governor’s office, Hochul signed bills S. 6267a and A. 268a as part of a legislative package that “requires telecommunication companies to block robocalls from certain numbers to prevent unwanted robocalls across additional providers. Legislation S.4281a/A.585a requires voice services providers to implement the STIR/SHAKEN call authentication framework to validate that a call is actually coming from the number it displays.”
The robocall blocking legislation, effective immediately, codifies the provisions of a rule released by the Federal Communications Commission in 2017 into the state law. The FCC’s rule, which went into effect in June 2021, permits voice service providers to proactively block calls from certain numbers.
“These would include calls that are the most likely to be illegitimate, as they are coming from numbers that do not or cannot make outgoing calls,” according to the governor’s office. “These types of numbers are indicative of ‘spoofing’ schemes in which the true caller identity is masked behind a fake, invalid number.”
Legislation S.4281a/A.585a requires voice services providers to implement the STIR/SHAKEN call authentication framework.
Last March, the FCC, as required by the federal Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, issued a rule requiring voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN by June 2021.
The New York bill, also effective immediately, “will provide for enhanced state enforcement for bad actors and will allow the state to ensure the implementation of STIR/SHAKEN as required by the FCC,” according to the governor’s office.
Meanwhile, at the federal level, ACA International was recently among joint industry trade groups that met with the FCC in October to retain voice service providers’ notification requirements in its Fourth Report and Order on Advance Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, ACA previously reported.
Read a complete summary of the associations’ meeting with the FCC and more background here.
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