On March 27, 2026, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing several rules to encourage and facilitate onshoring of customer service call centers, improve the customer experience and security of call center interactions, and address illegal robocall scams that originate inside foreign call centers.
The NPRM seeks comment on requiring providers who use offshore call centers to ensure that all calling staff at such centers are proficient in both written and spoken American Standard English, and seeks comment on ways to assess compliance, such as through a proficiency test. The Commission also seeks comment on ways to ensure that foreign call centers can adequately communicate with non-English speaking U.S. customers. The Commission proposes to incentivize onshoring of customer service call centers by: limiting the percentage of calls that may be made from, or answered by, a foreign call center, mandating disclosure to a customer when a call is being routed to a foreign call center, and allowing a customer to request a transfer to a call center in the U.S. The NPRM seeks comment on potential reporting and compliance measures associated with these proposals.
The NPRM additionally seeks comment on proposals to address national security risks, such as: limiting certain consumer transactions to domestic call centers, regardless of the type of communications channel used to initiate the transaction; prohibiting providers from using call centers in “foreign adversary” nations; and establishing data protection standards for foreign-based call centers. The NPRM also seeks comment on establishing a bond requirement or tariff for providers that transmit calls from a foreign country to the U.S., in order to incentivize providers to prevent illegal robocalls originating in foreign countries.
The above proposals are intended to apply to providers of telecommunications service, commercial mobile radio service (“CMRS”), interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) service, cable television service, direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”) service, and their affiliates. The Commission seeks comment on the types of communications that the proposed rules should apply to (including chats, texts, emails, foreign-originated calls, etc.), as well as whether to extend the proposed rules to stand-alone providers of non-interconnected VoIP and other Internet-only providers, including providers that provide only stand-alone Internet access service. The NPRM generally requests comment on the Commission’s legal authority to adopt the above proposed rules.
The following notable changes were made from the draft item.
- With respect to provisions of the draft item seeking comment on establishing a bond requirement or tariff for providers that transmit calls from a foreign country to the U.S, the adopted item removes the discussion pertaining to tariffs and instead asks about a “fee-based approach” (see para. 69). The adopted item maintains the discussion on bond-based approaches.
- The FCC expands on its proposal to prohibit providers from using call centers located in “foreign adversary” nations (para. 55).
- The FCC adds a new discussion on transparency (paras. 57-61), proposing to amend the Commission’s broadband label rule to require providers to display the percentage of customer service calls handled by a representative within the United States. The Commission also requests comment on whether providers of non-broadband services should be required to make the same information available on their websites, as well as on any First Amendment considerations relevant to these transparency proposals and the Commission’s legal authority to implement these proposals (para. 77).
- The FCC adds a new proposal to direct the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau to establish a mechanism within the informal complaint system to track consumer complaints related to customer service call centers (para. 66).
Comments on the NPRM’s proposals will be due 30 days after Federal Register publication, and reply comments will be due 60 days after publication.
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