Federal Communications Commission	FCC 18-134


STATEMENT OF
COMMISIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re:	Affordable Enterprises of Arizona, File No.: EB-TCD-17-00024974. 
	If you think we’re drowning in robocalls now, get ready.  The Washington Post just reported that by next year we will reach a new high-water mark.  In 2019 nearly half of all cellphone calls will come from scammers.  

	This is insane.  It’s great that this agency is issuing a forfeiture order and notice of apparent liability today.  But it’s crazy to think that these individual actions are going to do the trick and staunch the flow.  With this one-by-one effort we are trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.  

	We need a better approach.  We need to develop a policy statement to articulate this agency’s goals and efforts to reduce robocalls.  We need to set deadlines.  It has been roughly two years since this agency identified SHAKEN/STIR as a call authentication technology that can reduce robocalls.  In the meantime, Canada went ahead and set a 2019 deadline to put his technology in place.  We should be doing the same as our neighbors to the north.  We should renew the Robocall Strike Force that this this agency convened a few years ago.  We should have field hearings and seek technical expertise from far and wide.  Closer to home, we should respond to every outstanding court remand on robocalls and petitions before this agency expeditiously.  

	Just this week, NBC news reported on the same statistic cited by the Washington Post.  It sought comment from this agency.  The best we had to offer was an unnamed official who said an “industry led effort is the fastest way” and we “hope some companies will implement it within the year.”  I like hope.  But hope alone is not going to fix this problem.  It takes effort and it’s time for this to agency to offer real robocall resistance, because the flood of these calls is destroying something essential—trust in our communications network.
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