FCC toughens rules on robocallers and Internet 911 outages

The Federal Communications Commission has approved tougher rules on telemarketers' robocalls protecting consumers against unwanted autodialed or prerecorded calls at home.

The new rules

The new rules, approved Wednesday in a 3-0 vote, requires that telemarketers get written consent from consumers previously making such calls to home phone lines. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn called the rules "another victory for consumers. Very in the near future there will be one less chance that they are distracted while dinner unwanted interruptions from telemarketing robocalls."

Even although Congress in 2008 passed legislation making Do Not Call permanent, some telemarketers have continued to make unsolicited calls because of loopholes in the law. Earlier, companies that consumers already had done business with could robocall them, nevertheless that exemption will be removed pursuant to this agreement the new rules.

The commission as well unanimously approved require Internet-based phone services, just as Vonage, to alert the agency when outages affect 911 service. Traditional carriers already must do so, nevertheless nearly one-third of Americans use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for phone service. "The action we take today is part of this broad effort to ensure that 911 continues to work to meet consumer needs and expectations even as the innovation changes," said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "To do that, the commission needs information that it doesn't now have."

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