Don't Adopt 'Prescriptive' Mandates for Gateway Providers: USTelecom, ISPs to FCC

USTelecom, AT&T, Lumen and Verizon asked FCC Wireline Bureau and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff to require every provider to "enhance its existing robocall mitigation database ... rather than adopt prescriptive, gateway provider-specific mandates," in a meeting Monday, said an ex parte letter posted Thursday in docket 17-59 (see 2201110045). "[M]andating blocking obligations remove providers' flexibility in their blocking approaches," they said, noting the FCC could "implement a robocall mitigation program and provide a certification in the RMD" regardless of a provider's Stir/Shaken implementation status. USTelecom and the ISPs said the FCC's proposed requirement that gateway providers sign unauthenticated traffic "would be exorbitantly costly for some providers." The FCC should "focus any such requirement" on gateway providers "akin to what the agency did with shortening the small provider Stir/Shaken extension," they said.