January 17, 2019
Background: Today, U.S. Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Ed Markey (D-MA), members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, announced the reintroduction of the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act (S. 151).
The following statement can be attributed to Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO, USTelecom:
“Robocalls are the No. 1 consumer complaint at the FCC, and we couldn’t agree more with Senators Thune and Markey that targeting criminal robocallers is a top national priority. For the last several years, USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group has been hard at work chasing down the source of suspicious network traffic and exposing the illegal robocallers that scam and spoof consumers. The TRACED Act emphasizes the importance of reintroducing trust to the caller ID framework and heightens federal enforcement efforts to crackdown on the robocall plague.”
The USTelecom Industry Traceback Group (ITB) includes 25+ participants from voice providers across the wireline, wireless, VoIP, and cable industries working to identify and trace suspicious traffic on networks. Participation in USTelecom’s ITB Group is one of the most effective ways for carriers to enhance the critical enforcement efforts of the FCC, FTC, and other law enforcement agencies.
According to FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold and FCC Chief Technology Officer Eric Burger: “Over the course of the two years that the USTelecom Industry Traceback Group has been in operation, the amount of time necessary to conduct a traceback investigation from start to finish has shrunk from months to weeks. They added, “The partnership that the FCC and USTelecom have created in this space is exactly the kind of industry/government cooperation necessary for success.”