FCC might make it a requirement for carriers to block robocalls by default

Not a fan of receiving spam calls, especially from robocalls? Don’t worry, you’re not alone, and more recently, carriers such as Verizon have started to roll out anti-robocalling filters for its customers for free. Prior to that, the carrier had charged its customers a monthly subscription fee for the usage of the feature.

For the most part, it is still pretty much up to carriers to decide if they want to introduce such features to its customers, but the good news is that if you’d rather not wait around on carriers to do the right thing, the FCC has your back. In a post on the FCC’s website, it seems that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is looking to propose a new set of rules that will make the blocking of robocalls on a carrier level a default.

“Allowing call blocking by default could be a big benefit for consumers who are sick and tired of robocalls. By making it clear that such call blocking is allowed, the FCC will give voice service providers the legal certainty they need to block unwanted calls from the outset so that consumers never have to get them.”

What this means is that customers will not need to ask whether or not their carrier supports the blocking of robocalls or if they need to opt-in on the feature. Instead, customers will be opted-in by default and will actually need to opt-out if they don’t want to take advantage of these filters (although we can’t really imagine why).

Pai’s proposal also suggests that these blocking tools are to be made for free to all customers. This will not be enforced, but it is something that will be encouraged. Whether or not these new rules will be adopted remains to be seen, but we certainly hope it will.

Source: Android Police