FCC poised to crackdown on robocalls

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — As you stand there mumbling at your phone about yet another robocall, you are not alone. By some accounts, there are as many as 150 million robocalls placed each day in America.  But, that may soon change.

The Federal Communications Commission last week voted to allow phone carriers to block the automated calls by default, so long as they inform their customers.  

”We anticipate a great many phone companies will start using these call blocking services by default,” said Chairman Ajit Pai, Federal Communications Commission.

Customers will be able to choose to opt out of the blocking or continue to receive robocalls.

However, some are concerned about who will decide which calls get blocked.

“I think they have a huge problem in deciding what’s wanted vs. unwanted when every consumer is different,” said Alex Quilici, the CEO of YouMail, which is a robocall blocking app.

Pai didn’t share the same concern.

“They don’t care who exactly is stopping the robocalls – they want them to be stopped,” he said.

As for the cost to consumers, Pai said, “right now the vast majority of these call blocking services are offered for free and we anticipate that because blocking these robocalls would save companies money they would be able to pass those savings onto consumers.”