I swear to god I've heard that the telemarketer/robocaller problem is finally solved like ten times over the course of my life.

The existence in the first place of robo-dialing loopholes is criminal, and we ought to be able to prosecute it as such. I have no doubt that FCC leaders have accepted bribes to make everyone's phones shittier.

It would be really nice for everyone if we could get a consistent streak of non-criminals leading the FCC.

The FCC order will take effect 30 days after it's published in the Federal Register. A public draft of the order was released ahead of the FCC meeting.

So bad actors have at least 30 days to pull as much data as they can right now. People who keep their existing phone numbers may very well still be targets of robocalls because a database can be compiled right now, if it hasn't already happened. And unless you change your number and your new number is a currently unassigned number, you could still be targeted, since the number is in a list of phone numbers; your new number just wouldn't be listed as assigned to you. So maybe 10-15% of the people who change their phone numbers will be OK?

I'm an American living abroad and I use a VoIP service to maintain my US number. It had actually gotten more difficult to do this because of the changes they are making.

A few weeks ago I needed to submit docs proving I was a legitimate business with US tax id and whatnot.. If you don't have that, you have to provide an alternate number from a traditional phone contract of someone who lives in the US. Unless I were to pay for a phone subscription in America, there is no option for an individual to do this independently. I needed to use a family member's number.

My American phone number is very much necessary but I only use it on very rare occasions.. Paying something like $30-40 per month for an American phone contract (that I'll never use) plus the $15-20 per month fee for the voip provider is excessive.

If they just had an id verification system for American citizens and didn't tie it to a domestic account holder, that would be something.

Easy access to phone numbers? Did they flash an amnesia light to make them forget how Arabic numerals work? Literally all you have to do is look at a phone book to see what the valid area codes and exchanges are then robodial away.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

In one of its many attempts to curb robocalls, the Federal Communications Commission said it is making it harder for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to obtain direct access to US telephone numbers.

Before that, they could only get numbers by making a request through a traditional carrier," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement for yesterday's commission meeting.

Describing One Owl, the FCC said the company's efforts "to operate under the cloak of ever-changing corporate formations to serve the same dubious clientele demonstrate willful attempts to circumvent the law to originate and carry illegal traffic."

"Right now, it is very easy for bad actors who get caught facilitating illegal robocalls to set up shop under a new name and carry on with business as usual, and these rules will make it harder to do that," Nicholas Garcia, policy counsel for consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge, told Ars.

Garcia noted that "false or fraudulent registration and compliance reports would be an obvious way for the most dedicated bad actors to circumvent these new rules.

But that itself may provide new avenues for enforcement, and more requirements and friction raise the cost and risks" for VoIP operators that don't follow the rules.

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