“will empower consumers and encourage providers to continue to combat illegal robocalls by providing the public with an assessment of the effectiveness of voice service providers’ efforts to protect consumers from illegal robocalls,” the FCC said in a Wednesday public notice.
FCC scorecard proposal: a consumer-facing evaluation, not a new rule
The Federal Communications Commission unveiled a plan to create a public scorecard that lets consumers rate — and see ratings of — how well domestic voice service providers prevent or deter unwanted robocalls. The agency framed the project as a tool “to help consumers understand how effectively voice service providers address robocalls on their networks,” and emphasized that the notice is “not a rulemaking that will result in new rules or requirements for voice service providers.”
The notice does not lock in technical solutions or systems. Instead, it sets broad goals: produce a public guide for evaluating providers, assess transparency around provider metrics, and avoid reducing the exercise to “a simple administrative checklist.”
Composite metrics and the emphasis on outcomes
The FCC said it wants the scorecard to be “a composite set of metrics” reflecting both operational practices and measurable outcomes — specifically calling out the need to include how often legitimate calls are blocked. The agency signaled an interest in moving beyond whether a provider simply “offered the right tools or filed the right paperwork,” toward measures that show real-world performance against illegal robocalls.
The notice asks for public comment on the design scope, including whether the effort should target larger carriers, exclude small or regional networks, or adopt other criteria for which providers will be evaluated.
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End the scrambleData systems the FCC identified for evaluation
Rather than inventing new data streams, the FCC flagged existing federal and industry data systems it believes would be “best” for evaluating companies. Those systems include Robocall Mitigation Database filings, FCC Consumer Complaints Center data, and FCC enforcement action data. The agency also named third-party or industry sources such as Industry Traceback Group data and Federal Trade Commission complaint data as likely inputs.
The agency’s leaning toward these enforcement-linked sources ties the scorecard to documents and records already used to track compliance and consumer complaints.
Enforcement in practice: 14 providers booted from the Robocall Mitigation Database
The scorecard announcement coincided with an enforcement action: the FCC said it had removed 14 telecommunications providers from the Robocall Mitigation Database. The agency said those companies “failed to respond to take necessary steps when informed that their database certifications were out of compliance.”
The affected companies are Apps Communications, CFX Business Solutions, Conference America, Convergence Technology Solutions, CSB Technologies, Digital Division, Dixie Net Communications, HighComm, Inatech Solutions, makrodepot, Opex Communications, ReachME, SECURE, and SkyCom Healthcare.
According to the FCC, removal from the Robocall Mitigation Database “effectively cuts [a company] off from connecting to U.S. telecom networks.” FCC regulations give other U.S. providers two days to block all traffic coming from violators. FCC Chair Brendan Carr described the action bluntly: “Today’s action pushes more than a dozen providers off of U.S. networks for failing to abide by our robocall rules.”
What this means for consumers, voice service providers, and regulators
- Consumers and the general public: The scorecard is positioned as a transparency tool that will let consumers compare how well carriers prevent illegal robocalls and how transparent carriers are about their metrics. The FCC has said robocalls are the most frequent source of consumer complaints it receives.
- Voice service providers (wireless, wireline, VoIP and hybrid networks): Providers will face public scrutiny based on a composite of operational practices and outcomes. The FCC is seeking comment on whether evaluations should exclude smaller or regional networks, signaling potential differences in scrutiny across provider size. Separately, companies that fail to maintain required Robocall Mitigation Database certifications risk removal and disconnection from U.S. networks, with other U.S. providers required to block their traffic within two days.
- Regulators and enforcement officials: The FCC is coupling a public-facing transparency project with traditional enforcement tools. The agency identified enforcement-oriented data sources for evaluation and has already used the Robocall Mitigation Database to remove noncompliant providers. Peter Hyun, former acting head of enforcement at the FCC, endorsed the transparency approach and compared it to the Department of Transportation’s 2024 airline customer service dashboard, saying such transparency “helped foster adoption of improved practices and a strong focus on better outcomes for consumers.”
The program’s next immediate step is procedural: the FCC is soliciting public comment on design choices, scope, and which providers should be included. The agency has said it will publish scorecard results when ready, but the central choices — which composite metrics to use, how to weigh operational practices against measurable outcomes, and whether to concentrate on larger carriers — remain open for public input. Meanwhile, the simultaneous removal of 14 companies from the Robocall Mitigation Database illustrates how the agency plans to pair transparency with enforcement to address the robocall complaints it hears most often.
