July 22, 2015
Carson City, NV – Today, Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, along with 44 other state and territorial attorneys general, sent a letter calling on five major phone companies to offer call-blocking technology to their customers in light of a new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule. The letter, addressed to AT&T, CenturyLink, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, verifies that federal law does not prohibit call-blocking technology, and urges the chief executives to offer these services to their customers.
Call-blocking technologies have been developed to enable phone carriers to identify and block unwanted sales calls at the request of their customers. However, some phone carriers had previously not implemented this technology to reduce the number of unwanted telemarketing calls because of legal barriers. On June 18, the FCC passed a rule clarifying that companies can utilize such technology. With this ruling, the FCC has removed all legal excuses regarding call blocking.
“I will continue to protect Nevada’s consumers from unwanted, intrusive and oftentimes expensive telemarketing calls,” said Laxalt. “The FCC’s new rule clarification would allow customers to stop these calls before they ever come through, and should motivate phone carriers to assist their customers without delay.”
In addition to Nevada, other attorneys general who have signed onto the letter include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
To view the letter sent to the five phone carriers, click here.
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