Chairman Pai Robocalls Speech to State Attorneys General

I was particularly encouraged to see that 40 state attorneys general formed a bipartisan Robocall Technologies Working Group. I recently shared with my colleagues my proposal to allow phone companies to establish callblocking services as a default setting for consumers. In addition, carriers would be allowed to offer consumers the option of using their own contact list as a “white list.” Now, my proposals on call-blocking by default and a white list are part of what’s called a Declaratory Ruling. This basically announces what the FCC considers the law in this area to be. In addition to the Declaratory Ruling, I’ve teed up a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to call-blocking. Here, I’m proposing a safe harbor for carriers that block phone calls that aren’t properly authenticated under the caller ID technical framework that’s being developed, called SHAKEN/STIR. Lastly, it’s important to note that these proposals make very clear that emergency and other vital calls cannot be blocked, and that carriers must give consumers ample information about these services and methods. If adopted, we expect carriers to quickly begin offering call-blocking services by default and to work toward more advanced offerings like blocking based on contact lists.