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Phone companies and state attorneys general join forces to fight robocalls
US consumers receive as many as 350,000 unwanted calls every three minutes, according to the FCC. Despite multiple efforts to end the onslaught, an estimated 4.7 billion robocalls hit American phones in July alone. Now, attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia are teaming up with 12 carriers in a united effort to prevent and block the spam calls.
Under the new agreement, the carriers will implement call-blocking technology, make anti-robocall tools free to consumers and deploy a system that labels calls as legitimate or spam, The Washington Post reports. The companies also agree to aid investigations by law enforcement. The major players -- AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) -- are on board, as well as smaller carriers -- Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Consolidated, Frontier, US Cellular and Windstream. Though, there's no deadline for the companies to implement these measures.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday August 24 2019, @10:09PM (3 children)
Right in the posts above me.
Let me buy a plan where caller pays, just like those 976 "sex-chat" ladies have.
That's right! Now you can interrupt someone else with your important spam call! Just 99 cents per minute! Call Now!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday August 24 2019, @10:12PM
Whoops.. needed to add that if I dial a code during the call, it's on me.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Sunday August 25 2019, @04:56AM (1 child)
I've said that before. Phone spam is only a problem in countries where you pay to receive phone calls. It is a fucked up system that the phone companies have somehow convinced you poor buggers is normal.
Due to bulk calling rates they make a shitload more off of you receiving calls than they do off the spammers. No surprise they can't solve the "problem". From their point of view it isn't one, on the contrary it is an income stream.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 27 2019, @02:50AM
This kind of corruption seems a general problem with capitalism, not just telecoms. There's constant sliding towards monopolism, fascism, and plutocracy. The strongest market participants seem more interested in killing off the market in their greed to have and keep all the wealth and power they can accumulate.
Medical providers make more money by managing symptoms rather than curing patients, laws are made and enforcement performed for purposes of revenue generation 1st and public safety a distant 2nd (eg. speed traps, parking meters), the Prison Industrial Complex profits from incarceration, the Military Industrial Complex promotes fear, violence and war, the finance sector holds the entire economy hostage in exchange for bailouts as well as inflicts a steady stream of fees and absurdly high rates on "customers", intellectual property law makes us all into pirates and locks away our culture for forever minus one day, fossil fuel energy producers get away with externalizing a huge amount of the costs their business incurs, and there's all kinds of smaller, pettier bribery, regulatory capture and favoritism all over the place.