Giant names in technology and telecommunications industries like AT&T Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc, and Verizon Communications Inc joined the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday in stamping down automated, pre-recorded phone calls known as robocalls.
According to Reuters, the group called Robocall Strike Force is headed by AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson. The strike force hopes to put into practice Caller ID verification standards in support of the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2015 in U.S Congress. They are also deliberating a "Do Not Originate" list that would block spoofers from copying legitimate phone numbers from various companies.
The strike force is expected to report to the FCC on October 19 about their "concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions," said Stephenson.
Time reported that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged major companies last month to implement new rules to obstruct robocalls, which often come from telemarketers or scam artists.
“This scourge must stop,” Wheeler said on Friday, calling robocalls the No. 1 complaint from consumers. “The bad guys are beating the good guys with technology,” he added.
Stephenson emphasized, “the breadth and complexity” of the robocall challenge. “This is going to require more than individual company initiatives and one-off blocking apps. Robocallers are a formidable adversary, notoriously hard to stop.”
Such collaboration from renowned leaders of the government and the genius team of technology experts would surely bring significant changes in the telecommunications industry especially to the consumers who are often the victims of fraud and other forms of treachery.
Other companies that cast their membership in the Robocall Strike Force include: Comcast Corp., Blackberry Ltd, British Telecommunications Plc, Charter Communications Inc, Frontier Communications, LG Electronics Inc, Microsoft Corp, Nokia Corp , Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , Sirius XM Holdings Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and U.S. Cellular Corp.
