WASHINGTON - Laws against persistent "robocalls" date back to 1991 but in light of their dramatic increase, the FCC has gathered the industry's leading players to fight back.

Enter the Robocall Strike Force.

The FCC convened a meeting of 33 companies, including Google, Apple, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Microsoft that can combine forces against robocalls, a collaborative model that may ultimately yield solutions for other problems.

The meeting came amid an uptick in robocalls that has run parallel to the explosion of communications technology.

The Federal Trade Commission received 3.5 million complaints about robocalls in 2015, nearly half from consumers who had already asked to join a "do not call" list, according to the Consumers Union, the activist division of Consumer Reports. Complaints about rising robocalls violating the Do Not Call registry doubled between 2010 and 2015.

AT&T chief executive officer Randall Stephenson, who chairs the taskforce, emphasized the need to create new anti-robocall standards, find technical solutions to enforce them, and evaluate the logistics of a "Do Not Originate" list to protect certain government or bank phone numbers.

“We have to come out of this with a comprehensive playbook for all of us to go execute,” said Mr. Stephenson. “We have calls that are perfectly legal, but unwanted, like telemarketers and public opinion surveyors. At the other end of the spectrum, we have millions of calls that are blatantly illegal.”

This explains only in part the warlike language of the fight against automated telemarketing. Perhaps it is, as the Android Authority suggests, "tongue-in-cheek;" perhaps someone at the FCC has been watching "The Avengers."

"The bad guys are beating the good guys with technology,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, “due in large part to industry inaction.” (Source: Christian Science Monitor)

Story Date: August 22, 2016