In mid-August, 12 major service providers agreed to work together to slow robocallers. This is a good move since robocalls reached 4.7 billion in July, according to YouMail, a call-blocking service.
The 12 network service providers include: AT&T, Bandwidth, Comcast, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Consolidated Communications, Frontier Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream Services.
The question is: How will they do this?
Part of the answer is that they’ll analyze network traffic to identify patterns that are consistent with robocalls. Armed with this data, they’ll investigate the activity and share with attorneys general to help find and prosecute the illegal robocallers.
The other part of the answer: Coopetition.
Coopetition is a term that describes unconventional collaboration and cooperation within an otherwise competitive field of players.
We know that, behind closed doors, telecom providers work together on all types of things. But, this will be a more public display of affection — and that will be interesting to watch, for sure.
How long will the solution take? There is no deadline on the new rule requirements, which says to me that we may not see the solution for quite some time.
That said, if this project is successful, perhaps we’ll see the major and minor players across our industry collaborate on something equally as important: delivering decent Internet speeds to the unserved and underserved of our nation.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com
