The FCC's decision is good news for many US smartphone users



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Some analysts say that half of the calls you receive on your cell phone this year will be spam / scam calls. And we can tell you that in the United States, this statistic is entirely consistent with the target. And even if you block a number, another number will be used to disrupt your day. That it is a fraudulent call that claims to come from an electricity company demanding that you pay or that your electricity be cut off, or a call from spam trying to sell you an extended warranty for your car, you probably have enough.
That's why the FCC announced today (via CNET) that it had approved a declaratory decision authorizing operators to block such unwanted calls before they reach your phone. . Wireless service providers will be allowed to use what the regulator calls "reasonable analysis" to determine if a call comes from a fraudster or spammer, as long as the wireless service customer is aware of it and chose to participate. The FCC has also decided that mobile operators, currently allowed to offer customers their own call blocking tools on an optional basis, can activate them by default. This will make offering such a feature more profitable for operators and increase the number of wireless users protected from these calls. The only disadvantage of today's decision is that operators could accidentally block the automatic calls from pharmacies and doctors' offices.

The FCC will also allow mobile operators to offer customers a service that automatically blocks calls from numbers that are not on the customer contact list or on a "whitelist". Customers must log in to use this feature.

Today's action by the FCC also proposes that major wireless service providers follow the caller identity authentication function SHAKEN / STIR if they do not launch their own version of the service. here the end of the year. This technology ensures that a call you receive on your phone comes from the number listed on your handset. Some scammers and spammers "hijack" a phone number in your area, which increases the chances that you answer the call. T-Mobile launched its "Caller Verified" feature last January. According to the FCC SHAKEN / STIR framework, T-Mobile subscribers using certain handsets will see "Caller Check" on their phone when the phone number of an incoming call has been authenticated.

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