Over 30 major technology and telecommunication companies are joining the Robocall Strike Force, which looks to eliminate the pre-recorded and automated phone calls that have been described as a "scourge.
Last month, Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler penned an open letter addressed to the chiefs of the major telecommunication companies to push them to immediately take the necessary actions to fight against robocalls. The FCC had previously ruled that carriers are allowed to offer robocall blocking services to their customers, but some companies have incorrectly told their subscribers that they are not allowed to implement such technology.
AT&T was the first company to answer Wheeler's call, with the company's CEO Randall Stephenson agreeing to lead a Robocall Strike Force that will aim to quicken the development and implementation of technology to block robocalls.
The first meeting of the Robocall Strike Force has now been held with the FCC, with participants including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Apple, Google parent Alphabet and Microsoft.
Other companies that are part of the group include Blackberry, LG Electronics, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sirius XM and U.S. Cellular.
The Robocall Strike Force will report back on Oct. 19, when it is expected to discuss with the FCC concrete plans for the acceleration of the development and implementation of robocall blockers, group chairman Stephenson said.
Stephenson noted the complexity and breadth of the robocalling problem, adding that to stop robocalls, solutions beyond individual initiatives by companies and blocking apps are required to be developed.
Among the solutions being considered by the group are the implementation of caller ID verification standards that will help in blocking calls from fake telephone numbers and the creation of a "Do Not Originate" list that will block callers using legitimate telephone numbers of institutions such as banks and government offices.
Apple and Google currently offer blocking features in iOS and Android, with users receiving no notifications of an incoming call from a blocked number. There is no general blacklist that includes numbers used by robocallers, but the involvement of the two companies in the Robocall Strike Force signal that such a blacklist could soon come to devices powered by the world's two most popular mobile operating systems.
The decade-old federal Do Not Call list was created to block unwanted calls, but the system is suffering so many loopholes along with weak enforcement which makes it a failure in protecting consumers. About 222 million phone numbers have been added to the list for blocking calls, but the Federal Trade Commission received almost 3.6 million complaints regarding possible violations last year alone.
"This scourge must stop," Wheeler said regarding robocalls, and with many big names in the industry joining the Robocall Strike Force, that might happen sooner than later.
