Joint Trades Letter Urges FCC Action to Prevent Erroneously Blocked Calls

A broad coalition of trade associations, including bank and credit union trade groups, wrote the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 4 asking the FCC to protect outbound calls placed by legitimate businesses from telephone companies’ call-blocking programs.

To ensure legitimate calls are not blocked, the FCC should require telephone companies to provide notification of mislabeling and blocking and to provide a robust challenge mechanism that permits a legitimate business whose calls are being blocked to have the block removed promptly, the groups said. They also recommended that telephone companies be required to share information with each other on phone numbers that have been mislabeled or mistakenly blocked and also report that information to the FCC.

The trade groups were American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, American Bankers Association, American Financial Services Association, ACA International, Consumer Bankers Association, Credit Union National Association, Edison Electric Institute, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions, and National Council of Higher Education Resources.

Read the letter.