If you haven’t already figured it out, the FCC is serious about carriers and providers not carrying robocalls.
The FCC sent a cease and desist letter to DigitalIPvoice informing them of the need to investigate suspected traffic. The FCC reminded them that failure to comply with the letter “may result in downstream voice service providers permanently blocking all of DigitalIPvoice’s traffic”.
For background, DigitalIPvoice is a gateway provider meaning they accept calls directly from foreign originating or intermediate providers. The Industry Traceback Group (ITG) investigated some questionable traffic back in December and identified DigitalIPvoice as the gateway provider for some of the calls. ITG informed DigitalIPvoice and “DigitialIPVoice did not dispute that the calls were illegal.”
This is problematic because as the FCC states “gateway providers that transmit illegal robocall traffic face serious consequences, including blocking by downstream providers of all of the provider’s traffic.”
Emphasis in original. Yes. The FCC sent that in BOLD to DigitalIPvoice. I love aggressive formatting choices.
The FCC then gave DigitalIPvoice steps to take to mitigate the calls in response to this notice. They have to investigate the traffic and then block identified traffic and report back to the FCC and the ITG on the outcome of the investigation.
The whole letter is worth reading but a few points for voice service providers and gateway providers:
- You have to know who your customers are and what they are doing on your network. The FCC is requiring voice service providers and gateway providers to include KYC in their robocall mitigation plans.
- You have to work with the ITG. You have to have a traceback policy and procedures. All traceback requests have to be treated as a P0 priority.
- You have to be able to trace the traffic you are handling. From beginning to end.
The FCC is going after robocalls hard. Protect yourself by understanding what is going to be required of your network.
Keeping you in the loop.
