On July 7, 2022, the Enforcement Bureau (“Bureau”) released a Public Notice notifying all U.S.-based voice service providers that, pursuant to Section 64.1200(k)(4), they may block voice calls or cease to accept traffic from certain originating/intermediate providers listed in the Notice (and produced below) without liability under the Communications Act or the Commission’s rules.
The following voice service providers (the “Originating Providers”) have been identified by the Traceback Consortium as the originators of, or intermediate providers for, apparently unlawful auto warranty robocall traffic from Roy Cox, Jr., Aaron Michael Jones, their individual associates, and associated entities (collectively, the “Cox/Jones/Sumco Panama Operation”):
- Call Pipe
- Fugle Telecom
- Geist Telecom
- Global Lynks
- Mobi Telecom
- SipKonnect
- South Dakota Telecom
- Virtual Telecom
Contemporaneous with the Notice, the Bureau issued cease-and-desist letters setting forth investigation and mitigation requirements to the Originating Providers. These providers are required to notify the FCC/Traceback Consortium (1) within 48 hours of the steps taken to mitigate the identified traffic, and (2) within 14 days of the steps taken to prevent customers from using the service provider’s network to transmit illegal robocalls. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in removal from the Robocall Mitigation Database, obligating all other providers to cease carrying any traffic from that Originating Provider.
In the event that any of the Originating Providers fail to comply with the requirements laid out in the relevant cease-and-desist letter, the Bureau will issue a follow-up Order to all U.S.-based voice service providers notifying them of this fact. In the event that a follow-up Order is issued by the Bureau in this matter, pursuant to section 64.1200(n)(2) of the Commission’s Rules, all U.S.-based voice service providers shall be required to “take steps to effectively mitigate illegal traffic,” including investigating and taking steps—up to and including blocking, if necessary—to prevent the source of the illegal traffic from continuing to originate such traffic.
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