Overview

We are working with others in the fight against the robocall scourge. We focus on the providers of telecommunications services to hundreds of millions of Americans. Consumer and small-business customers are fed up with the worsening epidemic of illegal robocalls. Many providers have taken steps necessary to prevent these calls from originating on their platforms. They do this by vetting their customers, limiting high volume placement of calls, and routinely auditing for suspicious traffic. We all recognize that it is far more effective to stop illegal calls at the source, so when problematic calling campaigns are identified, we cooperate to trace them to their point of origin to take appropriate action. When ALL telecommunications providers work together this way, we will have a measurable impact on this scourge. Our Forum shares best practices and responds rapidly to new methods of attack; we invite every provider to participate. In the past, traceback efforts have sometimes been stymied by uncooperative upstream providers. Going forward, the are encouraging all provider(s) sourcing that traffic to take proactive steps to mitigate illegal calls. That includes retaining identification of volume calling customers and promptly sharing the source of problematic calls in response to traceback requests. Most provider contracts and tariffs already prohibit illegal calling. Providers (and their customers) must be diligent in meeting that constraint. The focus of our efforts is illegal calls, starting with the most prolific offenders. Providers (and their customers) that are not conduits for these illegal calls will not face new obligations from our initiative, but all providers – and their customers – will benefit when we together turn the tide on illegal robocall volume. Even calls from overseas must enter the USA network through some USA provider.