Industry Backs Robocall Mitigation Plans for All Providers

Some disagreement continued on an FCC Further NPRM aimed at gateway providers and curbing illegal robocalls, in replies Tuesday in docket 17-59 (see 2112130046). Gateway providers should be required to implement Stir/Shaken technology and robocall mitigation, said the National Association of Attorneys General. Extend the requirement to all providers and "enhance [the FCC’s] existing regime,” said USTelecom, which NCTA echoed. Verizon backed requiring all providers to certify a robocall mitigation plan and said the FCC shouldn't "mandate a burdensome stir/shaken obligation for intermediate providers." AGs backed a shorter implementation compliance deadline of within 30 days of Federal Register publication. The Voice on the Net Coalition backed Twilio's suggestion that providers blocking calls "should be subject to transparency and redress requirements." Impose a "know or should have known standard" on providers that may be trafficking in illegal calls, said the Electronic Privacy Information Center and National Consumer Law Center. Consider a "performance-based safe harbor" for providers that "meet or exceed a high standard of compliance," said YouMail. There are still some "misgivings about various aspects of this approach” because “we already have difficulty knowing who is an originator vs. an intermediate provider vs. a caller,” said ZipDX. Limit "any and all obligations” adopted in this proceeding to “foreign calls using U.S. numbers," said iBasis.