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I love that since the invention of the telephone the FCC has tried to "rein in" robocalls and failed at every step. Is there a more inept government agency? How
by stefan_ 5y ago
I love that since the invention of the telephone the FCC has tried to "rein in" robocalls and failed at every step. Is there a more inept government agency? How many years of failure has it been, has no one ever told them it goes on since carriers profit from it?
This is the agency that wants to regulate internet providers and they can't fix robocalls. It's an embarrassment, because we could use some of the former.
- dehrmann 5y agoNot only that, this should be one of the most bipartisan causes for lawmakers to rally around.
- acdha 5y agoIt’s not ineptitude but limited power: the major phone companies profit from spam and they’ve made it clear to their Congress members that they don’t want action – and the previous guy was famously a fan of any approach which involved hoping that they really meant it this time. Note also that this is not terribly different than email spam: Gmail is a bit better but they also have major false positive problems so to me this looks an awful lot like what happens when you have a smart adversary and limited will to change the system.
- dehrmann 5y ago> the major phone companies profit from spam Back in the day, but I assume most people have essentially unlimited voice and texts, so is this still the case?
- nikanj 5y agoYes. Look up termination fees: a carrier gets paid for every call that their customer answers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termination_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termination_rates
- paulv 5y agoFWIW, there was a multi-year period, just after the do not call list went in to effect, where the amount of spam phone calls I got dropped to zero.
- Texaner 5y agoBy that standard the most unsuccessful agency would be the DEA.