FCC Votes to Expand Anti-Spoofing Rules

At its Open Meeting today, the FCC voted to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking banning illegal spoofed text messages and international calls. The rules would enable the FCC to address consumer concerns about unwanted text messages and scam calls from overseas. Unwanted calls—including malicious spoofed calls and illegal robocalls—are the top consumer complaint the FCC receives each year, accounting for over 60% of the total complaints received. 

Since 2009, federal law has prohibited anyone from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information (“spoofing”) with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value. Legislative changes adopted as part of the RAY BAUM’S Act of 2018  extended these consumer protections did not extend to text messages or international calls.  The proposed rules would implement this new legislation, extending these prohibitions to short message service (SMS) and multimedia message service (MMS) text messages, calls originating from outside the United States to recipients within the United States, and additional types of voice   calls, such as one-way interconnected VoIP calls. 

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The Regulatory Mix Today: FCC Votes To Expand Anti-Spoofing Rules, FCC Rules For Connect America Fund Transitions, FCC Chairman Stresses Importance of Caller ID Authentication

FCC Rules for Connect America Fund Transitions

At its Open Meeting this morning the FCC voted to adopt a Report and Order setting the rules for the transition between legacy Connect America Fund support in certain price cap areas, and new, auction-based support for voice and broadband.  (The Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II Auction, which closed in August of 2018, allocated nearly $1.5 billion in support for broadband in rural areas currently lacking it.  The funds are targeted to areas where the ILEC declined the 2015 offer of CAF Phase II model-based support.) 

To ensure a seamless transition and protect program resources, the Order does the following:

• Where the price cap carrier bid in the auction and won, legacy support is converted to auction-based support when Phase II support is authorized in that area.
• In areas where a carrier other than the incumbent price cap carrier won in the auction, legacy support to the price cap carrier ceases when Phase II support for that winning bidder is authorized in that area.
• In auction-eligible areas with no winning bidder, interim legacy support for existing price cap carriers will continue until further FCC action.
• In areas that were ineligible for the auction, legacy support ceases when the first Phase II Auction support is authorized nationwide.
• In areas where a competitive provider is receiving legacy support, it will be phased down over two years.

FCC Chairman Stresses Importance of Caller ID Authentication

A press release was issued reiterating FCC Chairman Pai’s call for a robust caller ID authentication system to combat illegal caller ID spoofing.  The Chairman recently asked the nation’s largest carriers to provide details about their caller ID authentication plans and he has called for implementation to take place this year.

“American consumers are sick and tired of unwanted robocalls, this consumer among them. Caller ID authentication will be a significant step towards ending the scourge of spoofed robocalls. It’s time for carriers to implement robust caller ID authentication. Uniform adoption will help improve authentication throughout the network and make sure no consumer gets left behind. I applaud those companies that have committed to deploy the SHAKEN/STIR framework in 2019. This goal should be achievable for every major wireless provider, interconnected VoIP operator, and telephone company—and I expect those lagging behind to make every effort to catch up. If it appears major carriers won’t meet the deadline to get this done this year, the FCC will have to consider regulatory intervention,” said Chairman Pai.

In November 2018, Chairman Pai demanded that the phone industry begin providing caller ID authentication for consumers in 2019.  In response, phone companies—including wireless companies, traditional landline providers, and tech companies offering VoIP—outlined their plans. The carriers’ responses can be found here.

Chairman Pai believes that wireless providers, interconnected VoIP providers, and telephone companies should make real caller ID authentication (the SHAKEN/STIR framework) a priority and believes that major carriers can meet his 2019 goal.

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.