The Federal Communications Commission, in another effort to crack down on the volume of illegal robocall traffic, is seeking comment on a proposal to reduce the amount of time that small voice service providers would have to implement Caller ID authentication technology under the STIR/SHAKEN protocols if those providers are deemed to be facilitating robocall traffic.
Small voice service providers that are deemed to be originating an “increasing quantity” of illegal robocalls would be required to comply with the STIR/SHAKEN framework by June 2022 instead of June 2023, proposed the FCC. Large service providers are expected to comply with STIR/SHAKEN by June 30 of this year.
STIR/SHAKEN is technology that allows a carrier to verify the caller ID information matches the caller’s actual phone number. It is intended to stop individuals who spoof phone numbers by using different caller ID information to make it look like someone else is calling.
In making the announcement, the FCC noted that there is evidence to suggest that small voice service providers are originating “a high number of calls relative to their subscriber base and are also generating a high and increasing share of illegal robocalls compared to larger providers.” The commissioners of the FCC voted unanimously to approve the decision to seek comment on this proposal.
“… we recently discovered that some of these smaller companies are pumping large volumes of traffic onto our networks and a lot of it looks suspiciously like robocalls,” said acting FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in a statement
