FCC Threatens to Purge More Than 2,400 Voice Service Providers from U.S. Network

On December 10, the Federal Communications Commission announced that 2,411 voice service providers are at risk of being removed from the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) and consequently blocked from the U.S. phone network. Participation in the RMD requires each voice service provider to certify that they are taking certain minimum actions to detect and reduce (or mitigate) the volume of illegal robocall traffic that they transmit through the U.S. phone system; providers are not permitted to accept calls from companies that are not listed in the RMD, so removal from the RMD is tantamount to removal from the U.S. phone network. EPIC and other consumer advocates, as well as members of Congress, have called attention to egregiously deficient RMD entries, which suggest that those companies are not meeting the bare minimum requirements to mitigate robocall traffic and in some instances may even be soliciting traffic from bad actor callers.

EPIC routinely participates in regulatory and legislative processes to reduce robocalls and files amicus briefs in robocall cases.