The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission announced yesterday that they will host two joint events — a policy forum and a technology expo — on the topic of robocalls and how to stop them.
The policy forum will be held March 23 at FCC headquarters. The technology expo will be held April 23 in Washington, D.C. Called The Stop Illegal Robocalls Expo, the FTC and FCC announced yesterday that they are seeking exhibitors for the event. Exhibiting is free. The event will be open to the public. The goal of the technology expo is to “feature innovative technologies, devices, and applications to minimize or eliminate the number of illegal robocalls consumers receive,” according to the FTC.
The policy forum will “discuss the regulatory challenges posed by illegal robocalls and what the FTC and FCC are doing to both protect consumers and encourage the development of private-sector solutions,” according to the FTC. The event will be streamed online and available for anyone to watch. Who will actually be speaking during the policy forum was not announced, although the FCC said speakers will come from the “technology, consumer advocacy, and regulatory communities, among others.”
Interested parties can sign up to watch the policy forum here.
The ARM industry has been fighting a battle with technology solutions that are blocking legitimate calls from being placed to consumers, who are mistakenly indicating that calls from debt collectors are robocalls. There appears to be no easy way to have a phone number or company name removed from the list of suspected robocallers, and even if a number is removed, it can be put back on the list again by someone else. The FCC has proposed a number of rules aimed at improving the technology around blocking robocalls.