Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, reinforced the regulator’s push to eliminate illegal robocalls, noting that the newly reformed Consumer Protection and Accessibility Advisory Committee will form a working group to address robocalls and recommend additional efforts to combat them.
Illegal robocalls remain one of the most persistent consumer complaints, creating not only an annoyance but also significant fraud risks. For financial institutions and collection operations, FCC rulemaking in this area directly impacts how consumer communication strategies can be executed.
The details:
- Carr said the Consumer Protection and Accessibility Advisory Committee will serve as a “bridge” between FCC policymaking and real-world experience.
- The FCC is taking what Carr described as a “full lifecycle” approach to robocall enforcement:
- Prevention: Limiting bad actors’ access to phone numbers.
- Carrier accountability: Requiring providers to block more illegal calls and “know their customers.”
- Consumer tools: Expanding call-blocking and filtering options.
- Enforcement: Cutting off carriers that fail to mitigate robocalls from connecting to U.S. networks.
- The CPAAC’s first working group will focus on identifying conditions that allow robocalls to proliferate and recommend additional consumer protections.
Accessibility also on the agenda
- A second CPAC working group will focus on accessibility in communications, ensuring individuals with disabilities can fully benefit from evolving technologies like AI, video conferencing, and next-generation mobile tools.
- Carr emphasized that while communications technology has advanced rapidly, FCC rules have not always kept pace, leaving gaps in protections.
“We’re working right at the outset to stop bad actors from ever being able to originate these calls, including looking at ways to make it harder to get and maintain access to numbering resources,” Carr said. “We’re pushing carriers, once those calls are made, to block more illegal robocalls before they ever reach consumers. When it gets to your phone, we’re providing consumers with more tools to decide what types of calls they actually want to answer and which they don’t. We’re accelerating IT transition which has the added benefit of making it harder for illegal robocallers to mask their identity. And finally, we are working to increase our enforcement efforts, including by taking actions that effectively prohibit voice service providers from connecting or maintaining their connections to the U.S. telephone network.”
