Media Contact: 
Will Wiquist
will.wiquist@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

FCC FINDS TWO PROVIDERS FAILED TO
FULLY IMPLEMENT STIR/SHAKEN
Strips Bandwidth and Vonage of Partial Exemption from Rules

WASHINGTON,  February 17, 2022—The Federal Communications Commission today took action to ensure that voice service providers meet their commitments and obligations to implement STIR/SHAKEN standards to combat spoofed robocall scams.  Specifically, voice service providers Bandwidth and Vonage lost a partial exemption from STIR/SHAKEN because they failed to meet STIR/SHAKEN implementation commitments and have been referred to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau for further investigation.    

“We will not turn a blind eye to providers that have not done enough to protect consumers from spoofed robocalls,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.  “The FCC is keeping close watch as phone companies implement STIR/SHAKEN – a critical tool to help robocall blocking and consumer information.  We will hold companies accountable if they fail to meet their commitments to protect consumers from robocalls.”

Large providers were required to implement STIR/SHAKEN throughout the IP portions of their networks by June 30, 2021.  STIR/SHAKEN standards provide a common information sharing language between networks to verify caller ID information which can be used by robocall blocking tools, FCC investigators, and by consumers trying to judge if an incoming call is likely legitimate or not.

Under a Congressional directive, providers that committed to and met early implementation goals in December 2020 were afforded certain conditional leniencies which grant them some level of flexibility while still requiring them to fully implement STIR/SHAKEN by June 30, 2021.  While most providers who qualified for this statutory exemption maintain that status given their full implementation of STIR/SHAKEN by the deadline, the Order released today by the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau details the rationale for removing Bandwidth and Vonage from this group.  As a result, those companies are no longer afforded the leniency that the law provided and have been referred to the Enforcement Bureau. 

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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).