The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and state attorneys general are cracking down against VSPs they say are out of compliance with FCC regulations connected to illegal robocalls. Last Thursday, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau removed 185 VSPs from the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) to prevent those providers from connecting to U.S. networks until they comply with requirements.
“All removed providers violated commission rules by maintaining deficient certifications after repeated warnings and apparently participating in illegal robocall campaigns or failing to support official efforts to investigate such campaigns,” FCC officials said in a press release.
The 185 companies are identified in the nine-page, Aug. 6 FCC order.
“The FCC is engaged in a comprehensive effort to combat the scourge of illegal robocalls. That includes preventing providers from connecting to our networks if they fail to meet their regulatory obligations,” said FCC Chair Brendan Carr “The FCC expects every provider to do its part to protect Americans from these scammers.”
As part of the effort, 51 bipartisan attorneys general sent warning letters to 37 voice providers demanding that they stop illegal robocalls being routed through their networks. The multistate effort led by the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force also included letters to more than 100 downstream providers that accept call traffic from the 37 VSPs, “so that they know they’re doing business with bad actors that are not willing to follow the rules that apply to everyone equally,” according to a press release issued by the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
At least seven of the 37 VSPs sent warning letters were among the providers the FCC removed from the RMD. Removal from the database means “other providers will no longer be allowed to accept and route any calls from their networks,” according to Nessel’s office.
The Nessel release identifies the 37 VSPs that received warning letters. A list of the downstream providers that also received letters from the taskforce was posted online by Cloud Communications Alliance.
Last December, the FCC ordered 2,411 providers to rectify their deficient filings or provide a reason why they shouldn’t be removed from the RMD. VSPs removed from the database “will only be permitted to refile in the database with express approval from the FCC’s Enforcement and Wireline Competition bureaus,” according to the FCC.
The RMD was established to promote transparency and effective robocall mitigation. Providers are required to certify that all the calls that they originate on their networks are subject to a robocall mitigation program. They must also certify that they have implemented the STIR/SHAKEN framework of caller ID authentication on all IP-based portions of their networks. In addition, all providers are required to submit robocall mitigation plans.
“Failure to meet these obligations may result in removal from the database and blocking of the provider’s traffic,” FCC officials said.
The multistate Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force was created in 2022 to investigate and take legal action against companies responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the United States.
