Cybersecurity Policy Report, Robocall Mitigation Recommendations Offered by FCC Advisory Board, (Sep 17, 2026)

By Jeff Williams

During the final meeting under its current charter, the FCC’s Consumer Protection and Accessibility Advisory Committee adopted a report and 11 recommendations from its working group on robocall mitigation efforts detailing actions the FCC and industry could take regarding issues such as consumer outreach, cross-sector intelligence sharing, and international mitigation efforts.

During a presentation at the meeting, John Breyault, co-chair of the working group and vice president–public policy, telecommunications, and fraud at the National Consumers League, said the report concluded that illegal robocalls were an “evolving threat” caused by a “multitude of factors,” such as “bad actors who are taking advantage of our technology infrastructure” and artificial intelligence voice cloning.

“This is a threat that is continually changing,” he said, adding that mitigation efforts faced various “hurdles,” including jurisdictional barriers, data-sharing restrictions, inconsistent caller-ID signals on devices, and low public awareness.

However, Mr. Breyault said that “[t]here’s a lot being done about it,” and the Commission has “rightly made it a priority” to combat illegal robocalls through such efforts as directing implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN caller authentication standard, establishing the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD), and executing international memos of understanding (MOUs).

Among its recommendations, the working group suggested that the FCC “encourage industry stakeholders to maintain, expand, and proactively distribute accessible robocall mitigation resources,” as well as pursue, in collaboration with industry, “a sustained, multi-channel public awareness strategy.”

The recommendations for the FCC also include the formation of a “cross-sector working group” focusing on improving intelligence sharing and the exploration of “new methods to mine and integrate intelligence from data repositories ... to enhance its regulatory enforcement and deliver dynamic, near real-time consumer education on emerging scam trends.”

Other recommendations for the FCC are to “collaborate with industry to ensure that providers and manufacturers have flexibility in how they implement any handset display labeling,” focus on U.S.-originated robocalls in addition to foreign-originated calls, prioritize reaching robocall-related MOUs with additional countries, and “create and maintain a unified, dedicated website” in partnership with state attorneys general, federal agencies, and others to provide “continuously updated, plain-language guidance” and other resources to consumers.

The working group also recommended a multi-agency, nationwide robocall consumer awareness campaign, as well as considering “non-traditional distribution channels” for consumer outreach and examining “whether consumer fear of false positives serves as a barrier to adopting call-blocking tools, while publishing clear guidance” about robocall mitigation tools.

During closing remarks at the meeting, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said CPAAC had been a “great success” and noted that the Commission planned next month to renew the committee for another two-year term.

Mr. Carr also expressed thanks and appreciation to the group’s members, leaders, and working group chairs and highlighted the importance of the working group on robocall mitigation, in particular.

“We’re really trying to tackle the scourge of illegal robocalls at every single portion of the call path. We want it to be harder to get numbers. We want it to be harder, if you are a business generating massive volumes of calls, to get on networks without people knowing who you, as a business generating massive volumes of calls, are.”

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