Posted on 05/15/2019 8:14:57 AM PDT by Innovative
The ruling could give carriers legal protections in blocking spam calls.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been fighting robocalls for years, but as anyone with a cell phone can tell you, they're still getting through. Now, the Commission wants to make it legal for phone companies to block unwanted robocalls by default. Chairman Anji Pai has circulated a declaratory ruling that, if adopted, would give carriers permission to develop new call blocking tools. The ruling could also allow consumers to prohibit calls from numbers that aren't on their contact lists.
The proposed change targets spam robocalls that hijack legitimate, in-service numbers. Carriers like Comcast, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon are working to deploy STIR/SHAKEN technology that labels calls from authentic numbers. But the FCC says many voice providers have held off on developing call blocking tools because it was unclear whether those tools were legal under FCC rules.
"By making it clear that such call blocking is allowed, the FCC will give voice service providers the legal certainty they need to block unwanted calls from the outset so that consumers never have to get them," Pai said. If adopted, this ruling could lead to new call blocking tools, like those used by third-party apps. The systems would include protections against blocking emergency calls, and consumers would be able to opt-out of call blocking if they wish.
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
I put my phone on the "do not call" list, but I still get a large number of unwanted robo and sales calls.
Yay!
Just like Spam....Go for it.
FWIW I use Youmail for voicemail transcription and it has a pretty good spam blocker feature.
Several times a day my phone will ring a few times and then I will get a “Scam Likely” notification.
But the FCC says many voice providers have held off on developing call blocking tools because it was unclear whether those tools were legal under FCC rules.
...
The lack of clarity was probably on purpose.
This won’t work.
Scenario: you do business with a company. They have several phone lines. They call you back from a number that you were not aware they had. The call is blocked. Stupid. Dense. Moronic.
Scenario:
Your child is out with friends and needs assistance, and calls you from a friend’s phone, a store’s phone, or some other phone that you don’t know.
Also, the telemarketers use fake numbers, one of which CAN be from a number on your “white list.”
Blocking numbers by default is not the solution.
Innovative wrote: “I put my phone on the “do not call” list, but I still get a large number of unwanted robo and sales calls.”
Put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” which sends all calls/texts/notifications from any source to voice mail. Then, select “Contacts” under exceptions. Any text/call/notification from a contact will be allowed to go through immediately. All others go to voice mail.
I’ve cut my robocalls to nothing using this.
Trump can easily win reelection by going clearly against robo calls and any other spam calls. Plus he can go after scams by phone. There are lots of them. And he should go after viruses as well. He should be very vocal about going after anyone who tries to attack old people with misleading calls.
He should also go after cable companies and phone companies that change rates constantly on old people. Old people have a very hard time getting the rates they were promised.
My concern exactly.
This proposal is not a workable solution.
Btt
Please God, let it be so
I put my phone on the “do not call” list, but I still get a large number of unwanted robo and sales calls.
+++++
The Spammers have hundreds of phones and very likely different names for each. It’s impossibke to totally block them,
I gave up, stopped answering the land line and turned it off. Keeping for 911 calls only. So now our calls all come in/out via cell phone.
I don’t think they would block a number just because they aren’t familiar with it.
But there are known spam numbers and they can block those.
That's not what this is about. It is about developing technology to determine that a call is not masquerading as another number. It's about authenticating numbers: https://transnexus.com/whitepapers/stir-and-shaken-overview/ That means a number that you don't know still gets through but it can't pretend to be a different number. And if that original number is on a block list (only) then the call will be blocked.
That's correct. And number authentication would prevent the spammers from masequerading as a non-spam number.
It is workable. The current problem is spoofing. That allows spammers to bypass the blocking of their (spam) numbers. The proposal would allow telecomms to authenticate all numbers allowing blocking of spam numbers.
People already do this, because many of the phones have the tools built in.
Make your generic Ringtone silent, and assign a different Ringtone to people in your contact list.
Review your voicemail now and then, and add callers you want to your contact lists.
This is part of why no polls (even if you want them to be true) are either scientific or accurate anymore. Entire demographics refuse to participate.
bookmark
I know it’s like calling terror-HOPE THEY DO IT!!!
Why can’t they just make it illega for anyone to make unsolicited phone calls to sell something?
I pay for my phones because they are useful to me. Not so they can be useful to people trying to sell me crap I don’t want and didn’t ask for.
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