Regulation Not Always the Answer to Curbing Robocalls: CPAC Foundation
The Conservative Political Action Coalition Foundation said in FCC comments Monday that a problem for consumers like unwanted robocalls doesn't necessarily justify “prescriptive regulatory intervention.” Other filers urged the agency to adopt proposals in a caller ID further NPRM approved by commissioners in October (see 2510280024). Comments were due Monday in docket 17-59.
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Robocalls are “a technologically adaptive phenomenon driven by evolving incentives, low marginal costs for bad actors, and asymmetric information at the moment a call is delivered,” the CPAC Foundation said. History shows that “static, technology-specific mandates are quickly arbitraged by scammers, while imposing lasting compliance costs on legitimate providers and users.” Effective FCC policy must “focus on aligning incentives, preserving flexibility, and avoiding regulatory lock-in that may outlast the usefulness of any particular tool.”
The New York Public Service Commission said requiring the display of clear and reliable caller ID information, as proposed in the notice, “will help consumers make informed decisions about whether to answer incoming calls and mitigate attempts at frauds or scams.” But the commission warned against proposals to “eliminate or modify” existing robocall-related rules “unless such rules are first determined to be technologically obsolete.”
Indiana ISP Joink cautioned against proposals to require the use of rich call data (RCD) as an alternative caller ID solution. Joink can’t “apply RCD across all voice services because some call paths originate outside” its operational control, the company said. “Full end-to-end RCD functionality requires upstream-carrier support and broader industry interoperability” and would be “premature for small providers with mixed call paths and upstream dependencies.”