On November 5, 2018, the Commission published a News Release on Chairman Pai’s demand that the phone industry adopt measures to end illegal caller ID spoofing. Chairman Pai calls for a robust call authentication system to be implemented no later than next year, stating “combatting illegal robocalls is our top consumer priority at the FCC.” He added that if the system is not on track to be launched next year, the Commission will take action to ensure its implementation.
The Chairman sent letters to voice providers asking them, if they have not done so already, to utilize the Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN) and the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) standards, adopted in May on the recommendation of the North American Numbering Council. The SHAKEN/STIR framework requires originating carriers and other carriers to digitally validate calls as legitimate before reaching consumers. A robust call authentication framework is part of the Commission’s effort to combat robocalls, allowing consumers and law enforcement to more easily identify the source of illegal robocalls, reducing their negative impact on consumers. The letters also inquired about implementation plans and urge providers who have not yet taken action on robocalls to do so without delay.
Letters were sent to the following providers:
- AT&T
- Bandwidth. com
- CenturyLink
- Charter
- Comcast
- Cox
- Frontier
- Sprint
- TDS
- T-Mobile
- US Cellular
- Verizon
- Vonage
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