Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler puts his sweeping call to crackdown on robocalls, spam text messages and telemarketing calls to a full vote during the Commission's open meeting Thursday.
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The proposal comes following two dozen petitions from phone carriers that "sought clarity" on how the commission enforces the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Wheeler's plan would close loopholes and beef up consumer protections already on the books so that every carrier would feel comfortable offering consumers technology to stop robocalls.
Aaron Foss the winner of an Federal Trade Commission challenge to develop robocall blocking technology says his system, NOMOROBO, blocked "15 million robocalls last year."
"There was a ton from Florida, Foss says, "a lot of people got taken advantage of by scams."
Foss' technology has only been available on VOIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol technology offered by cable companies.
However, if Wheeler's proposal passes as expected, the cellphone barrage of unwanted robocalls calls should be facing a swift shutdown by the telephone carriers.
In a statement to the Senate Committee on Aging the FTC admitted "illegal robocalls remain a significant consumer protection problem because they repeatedly disturb consumers' privacy and frequently peddle fraudulent goods and services that cause significant economic harm."
The "Do Not Call List" is still a viable option for consumers tired of unwanted calls.
You can sign up by going to: donotcall.gov
The NOMOROBO service is free. For more information on NOMOROBO go to: Nomorobo.com