Experienced Call Blocking? Tell us!

The FCC is seeking comment on any call blocking issues experienced by consumers, including central station alarm companies, in connection with the implementation and effectiveness of carrier opt-in and opt-out call blocking services.  Previously, we informed you that the FCC clarified in 2019 that carriers may block calls to consumers based on analytics, without the customer’s up-front consent, as long as customers can opt-out of such blocking.  We are aware that a number of carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, are providing opt-out and/or opt-in call blocking to their customers and in some cases, calls from a central station have been blocked or mislabeled as fraud. 

We seek to provide information to the FCC concerning any issues alarm companies have experienced in connection with call blocking with the goal of ensuring that calls from central stations responding to an alarm are not blocked or mislabeled.  Accordingly, if calls made by your central station in response to an alarm to either the customer or the PSAP have been blocked or mislabeled, we ask that you send such information to us no later than February 12, 2020 to allow us to present this information to the FCC.

Contact:

Celia T. Besore
Executive Director, TMA
cbesore@tma.us