Sonic, Comcast join fight against robocalls

Robocalls, one of the banes of modern life, may soon become easier to avoid.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a set of rulings this month affirming consumers’ rights to control the calls they receive, closing several loopholes that allowed telemarketers and scammers to bombard consumers with autodialed, pre-recorded messages on their cellphones and landlines alike.

The FCC made it clear telephone companies can offer “Do Not Disturb” technology that allows customers to block annoying robocalls.

So far, the automatic blocking service is only available from companies that provide telephone service over the Internet, FCC spokesman Will Wiquist said. He was not aware of any landline telephone companies offering the service.

“The next step is for phone companies to start offering this technology,” he said. “The FCC is encouraging consumers to start asking for this.”

Sonic, a Santa Rosa-based Internet service provider that offers telephone service, began integrating its Fusion phone service with an automatic robocall blocking service, called Nomorobo, last fall. It has blocked more than 5 million automated telemarketing calls since October, Sonic CEO Dane Jasper said Monday. Up until the FCC ruling this month, Jasper wasn’t clear whether the company’s approach was legal.

“We’re blocking about a little over three-quarters of a million robocalls a month for our Fusion customers,” Jasper said.

For the past two years, Comcast has been offering a version of Nomorobo that uses “simultaneous ringing” technology, where calls are routed to a second line, spokesman Bryan Byrd said. The second line identifies that robocaller and hangs up on them before the call can ring through to the telephone customer. Consumers can sign up for the service on Nomorobo’s website.

Local AT&T representatives could not be reached for comment Monday. According to Nomorobo’s website, the service is available on AT&T’s U-Verse service but not on AT&T’s traditional landline service.

Unsolicited robocalls are the largest category of complaints received by the FCC, Wiquist said. The agency received more than 215,000 complaints in 2014, he said.

In its June 18 ruling, the FCC made it clear to telephone companies that they face no legal barriers to allowing customers to use robocall blocking services. Wiquist said that telephone companies previously resisted automatically blocking robocalls because of existing FCC rules that require telephone companies to “complete calls.”

“We have rules that say phone companies have to make every effort to complete calls and they can’t block calls,” Wiquist said, adding that these rules were meant to prevent anti-competitive behavior, such as telephone companies blocking calls from a competing telephone company.

Wiquist said that automatic blocking is legal as long as it’s the consumer who is making the choice.

“We’re making sure we’re empowering the consumer to make that choice,” he said.

As part of its decision authorizing telephone companies to block robocalls, the FCC issued rulings on 21 requests to clarify existing laws, giving consumers more power over the types of phone calls and texts they receive. They include:

If a phone number has been reassigned to a new customer, companies must stop calling the number after one call.

Consumers are entitled to the same consent-based protections for texts as they are for voice calls to wireless numbers.

Consumers have the right to revoke their consent to receive robocalls and robotexts at any time.

“It’s simple: consumers should be able to make the decision about whether they receive automated calls. If they want them, they can consent. And if they don’t consent, they should be left alone,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement.

While Sonic was in limbo while it waited for the FCC ruling, Jasper said the company decided to offer the robocall blocking service last fall because he was confident regulators would side with consumers.

“Phone lines would be a lot less annoying if carriers did what we’ve done,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.