The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to curb the problem of spam calls at the source, requiring telecom operators to take more responsibility in "Know Your Customer" (KYC), otherwise they will face penalties.
As early as 2016, Google had added a spam call reminder function to the Android native phone application. Since then, various anti-harassment features have been continuously iterated, but spam calls are still banned repeatedly. The FCC plans to strengthen existing KYC rules to force operators to conduct more stringent reviews in number opening and management.
According to the solicitation document released by the FCC, regulators are considering implementing more stringent identity verification requirements for new and renewed users, which may include: forcing users to provide names, addresses, government-issued IDs, backup phone numbers and other information to reduce the space for criminals to obtain lines in batches.
At the same time, the FCC is also seeking feedback from the public and the industry to discuss how to punish operators who violate KYC regulations based on the "number of illegal calls released" to ensure that the penalties match the actual harm caused by spam calls to the public. In short, the more illegal calls are allowed to pass through the network, the higher the penalties that operators may have to bear in the future.
At present, the FCC has clearly required operators to "know their customers" and promptly suspend services when they are found to be using the network to make spam calls or other illegal activities. However, the FCC pointed out that many operators have insufficient efforts in the implementation process and are not active in screening and exiting problem customers. This has also become one of the important reasons why spam calls have long troubled users.
FCC emphasized that blocking spam calls is only part of a systematic solution. In addition to the "card entry" in the number application process, operators should also proactively intercept spam calls detected during network operation and provide users with more transparent incoming call information to help users make more informed decisions about answering calls. At the technical level, this type of capability relies in part on call authentication and marking standards such as STIR/SHAKEN, which are used to verify the authenticity of incoming call numbers and reduce number camouflage and fraudulent use.
In terms of Internet companies, Google and other companies are also trying to use artificial intelligence to assist in identifying and fighting spam calls, and provide users with more accurate call risk reminders on the terminal side. However, it can be seen from this FCC action that regulators are no longer satisfied with relying on terminal applications to "make up for the situation", but hope to force operators to take more proactive and systematic responsibilities in combating spam calls through a stricter KYC system and a more deterrent penalty mechanism.