On October 1, 2020, the Commission released the Second Report and Order (“R&O”) to combat illegal robocalls, which was adopted prior to the September Open Meeting (WC Docket No. 17-97).
The adopted item incorporates the following relevant changes from the circulated draft version:
- The Commission declines to grant USTelecom’s post-circulation request to exclude voice service providers within the 100,000-subscriber-line threshold that “originate a disproportionate amount of traffic relative to their subscriber base, namely voice service providers that serve enterprises and other heavy callers through their IP networks.” (¶ 48).
- The Commission recognizes that a voice service provider may not be able to immediately comply with its caller ID authentication obligations after it becomes eligible to receive a certificate, and clarifies that it will not consider a voice service provider that diligently pursues a certificate once it is able to receive one to be in violation of the rules (¶ 50).
- The Commission clarifies that it will give notice and an opportunity to cure for voice service providers whose certifications are deficient before removing the provider from the robocall mitigation database (¶ 88).
- The Commission revises the definition of “foreign voice service provider” to be “any entity providing voice service outside the United States that has the ability to originate voice service that terminates in a point outside that foreign country or terminate voice service that originates from points outside that foreign country.” The Commission agreed with commenters that its previous definition was unduly narrow and excluded certain non-US providers (¶ 92).
- In response to concerns raised by commenters, the Commission encourages voice service providers to provide evidence of technical problems or likely blocking of legitimate calls that may arise regarding foreign-originated voice traffic so that it can consider whether to make any modifications to these rules (¶ 94).
The Commission will publish the effective date for the R&O in the Federal Register.
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