CRTC orders telecoms to develop tools for blocking nuisance calls

Telecom companies will soon be required to put in place measures to block “unwanted nuisance calls” on both wireless and wireline networks, the CRTC announced Monday. The regulator said in a decision, which follows a consultation launched last year, that the technical tools currently available to Canadians to deal with nuisance calls “are not sufficient.” Under the new rules, “blatantly illegitimate calls” with spoofed phone numbers would be blocked at the network level, while consumers would also have the option of opting in to services offered by their provider to manage nuisance calls. Within a little less than six months, companies must report back to the CRTC on “details outlining the name and description of the opt-in filtering service(s) they offer or propose to offer to their subscribers,” while the CRTC interconnection steering committee (CISC) will “develop practices to block blatantly illegitimate calls at the network level,” and report its findings within 90 days. Matt Stein, spokesman for the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), said in a phone interview providers would “have to see what CISC comes up with before we determine how easy or difficult it will be to implement.” Regarding the optional opt-in service, Stein said only a few providers currently have such offerings. Among them is Birch Communications Inc.'s Primus, which offers, as part of its home phone service, the ability “to give each customer the final say over whom they speak with,” the company said in a September press release. It said at the time that it’s “the only Canadian carrier that is able to protect its customers from unwanted telemarketing and robocalls.” Stein said the CRTC decision “definitely creates some room for innovation. It was good to see the commission verify a long-standing question many of us have had about whether or not we’re even allowed to implement such a service.” Overall, he said, it’s “a great idea the commission is getting involved and is trying to drive new solutions to drive nuisance calls,” though he noted the short timeline “could pose some challenges.” In the decision, the CRTC said the options currently available to customers “are either highly permissive (they allow all calls except those specifically listed) or highly restrictive (they reject all calls except those specifically listed),” and have other limitations, the CRTC said. Less-cumbersome solutions that offer various levels of protection and “rely on community-level information upon which to determine whether the call is a nuisance or not, are needed to provide better protection to Canadians,” it added. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for agencies like the CRTC around the world to stop nuisance calls when callers use caller ID spoofing to fake the phone number they’re calling from, it said. “Blatantly illegitimate calls include calls that purport to originate from telephone numbers” that either “match the telephone number of the person being called,” have a spoofed local number but are actually long-distance calls, or are non-dialable numbers that don’t “conform to the North American Numbering Plan,” it explained. “Caller ID spoofing may also be used to facilitate misleading and fraudulent telemarketing activities, which may lead to anxiety, annoyance, and, in some cases, distress and financial losses,” it said, adding that it estimates nearly half of the complaints received by the operator of the national Do Not Call List (DNCL) last year “involved an element of illegitimate caller ID spoofing.” It also noted that given “the rapid evolution of work done in this area since the close of the record of this proceeding, the Commission intends to launch a follow-up process to review the progress being made by standards bodies on the issue of caller ID authentication.” The commission warned in the decision that it “is prepared to take further action if it becomes clear that the industry is not taking sufficient measures to protect Canadians against unwanted calls.” In an email Monday, Rogers Communications Inc. spokesman Andrew Garas said the company supports “the CRTC’s decision to formalize this process and reviewing today’s decision.” “We all want to hang up on these irritating calls and we’re working on a solution because it’s important to our customers,” he said. Telus Corp. spokeswoman Luiza Staniec also said the company is reviewing the decision. “We look forward to participating in the proceedings and discussing ways in which we might be able to feasibly strengthen our approach to helping customers prevent nuisance calls,” she said in an email, noting that nuisance calls are “certainly an ongoing frustration for customers, and attention.” BCE Inc. spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis said in emailed statement that “Bell supported the idea of an industry working committee to create universal blocking solutions, and we look forward to working with other communications providers to implement today’s decision.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

CRTC orders telecoms to develop tools for blocking nuisance calls

News | November 7, 2016

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CRTC orders telecoms to develop tools for blocking nuisance calls

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