FCC Calls for "Strike Force" to Combat Robocalls

Federal Communications Commission (the "FCC") Chairman, Tom Wheeler, last week encouraged the major wireless and wireline telecommunications carriers to offer cost-free call-blocking services to customers.  This week, AT&T announced that it has heeded that call to action and will form a strike force to come up with a plan to prevent robocallers from circumventing regulations and blacklists aimed at blocking their calls.  AT&T hopes to be joined in its efforts by other wireless and wireline carriers, cellphone manufacturers and software developers.

How does the strike force intend to combat robocalls?

A key goal of the envisioned strike force is the formulation of a "Do Not Originate" list that would theoretically contain the list of numbers known to generate robocalls.  The intended benefit of such a list would be to block calls from these numbers before they ever reach telephone subscribers.  A reduction in fraudulent autodialed calls has been a longtime