Technology and communications giant like Google, AT&T and Apple along with other 30 major companies recently announced that they are participating with the US government's efforts to crack down "robocalls,' automated and pre-recorded calls that were labeled as "scourge" by regulators.
As part of the said efforts, a "Robocall Strike Force" was created. This is made up of large companies such as Google's parent Alphabet Inc., AT&T Inc., Apple Inc., Comcast Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. The newly-established group conducted its first meeting with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
According to Randall Stephenson, AT&T's Chief Executive Officer and chairman of the group, it was agreed that the strike force will provide FCC with a report about the "concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions" by October 19.
The strike force strongly hopes that they can implement new standards on Caller ID verifications that are quite helpful in blocking calls that originate from phone numbers that are spoofed. Furthermore, the group is also considering the creation of a "Do Not Originate" list which is intended to block the impersonation of legitimate phone numbers particularly those from banks and government agencies by spoofers.
Many technology experts believe that the joint effort initiated by tech and communication giants was their response to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's call last July to take action to help block robocalls that usually originate from scam artists and telemarketers.
Aside from the said call, Wheeler also reiterated that many consumers are considering robocalls as their number one source of complaint. Thus, Wheeler decreed that the scourge must stop. To further address the issue, his agency is also encouraging phone service providers to offer robacall filtering and blocking without any charge.
Apart from dealing with the problem of robocalls the creation of the strike force has also brought the government, telephone carriers, device makers and network designers together, a very rare condition in an environment where intense competition is a norm.
