Finally, a good call: Bipartisan coalition pledges relief from dreaded robocalls

CONCORD - A bipartisan coalition of Attorney Generals and privately owned phone companies have hammered out eight guiding principles to fight the ubiquitous scourge of illegal robocalls.

This agreement, announced on Thursday, will help protect phone users a constant flood of the algorithm-driven nuisance and make it easier for attorneys general to investigate and prosecute bad actors.

"The number one job of all attorneys general is to ensure the protection of the citizens in our states," said New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald. "Through the nationwide collaboration of attorneys general and industry leaders, we are setting forth a plan, in real time, to protect our citizens by combatting burdensome and dangerous robocalls. The principles announced today will address a technological problem with a technological solution and are aimed at preventing robocalls through call blocking, call labeling, and network improvements as well as greater enforcement actions."

The strategies were announced in Washington by MacDonald, North Carolina AG Josh Stein and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.

Phone companies will work to prevent illegal robocalls by:

· Implementing call-blocking technology at the network level at no cost to customers.

· Making available to customers additional, free, easy-to-use call blocking and labeling tools.

· Implementing technology to authenticate that callers are coming from a valid source.

· Monitoring their networks for robocall traffic.

Phone companies will assist attorneys' general anti-robocall enforcement by:

· Knowing who their customers are so bad actors can be identified and investigated.

· Investigating and taking action against suspicious callers - including notifying law enforcement and state attorneys general.

· Working with law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to trace the origins of illegal robocalls.

· Requiring telephone companies with which they contract to cooperate in traceback identification.

Going forward, phone companies will stay in close communication with the coalition of attorneys general to continue to optimize robocall protections as technology and scammer techniques change.

The coalition includes attorneys general from all 50 states and Washington.

The coalition of companies includes AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon and Windstream