Continuing their fight to combat illegal robocalls, the FCC has sent cease-and-desist letters to two phone service providers that were determined to be providing service to robocall scammers.

The press release says that the two providers are the two most recent of over twenty providers that the FCC has sent such letters to over the last few years, instructing them to investigate and end service to the robocallers or face "serious consequences", including other phone providers blocking their networks permanently.

If you don't quite understand what that means, here's an example.  If Verizon were to block AT&T, AT&T customers would be unable to call or text anyone who is a Verizon customer.  The call or text just wouldn't go through.  It would basically be a return to the early days of cell phones, when you could only talk to people who were on the same network.

If you would like to read the cease-and-desist letters sent to these two or any of the other providers, the FCC has the letters posted in a public archive here.

The press release also goes on to talk about some of the other work being done by the FCC and their Robocall Response Team to combat robocall scammers both domestic and international.  One of the items mentions the massive auto warranty robocall scam I talked about last month.  Another mentions implementing the "serious consequences" I talked about earlier on providers who didn't meet the FCC's requirements for preventing robocalls and Caller ID spoofing on their networks.

The release also mentions partnerships with 43 states plus Washington D.C. and Guam (I checked, and as of September 2022, Montana is not one of the 43), along with international partnerships with Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, and Romania to investigate robocall scams.