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Telemarketing has been regarded by many as a necessary evil in the past, a frequently maligned marketing tactic has both employed many and annoyed many more. But while there are rules in place for telemarketers, the rules aren't often so easily applied when the telemarketer is a machine. The so-called robocall is somewhat tougher to deal with, and that's where services like Nomorobo come into play. Now, Nomorobo's founder, Aaron Foss, is in Washington, and is talking to the FCC (News - Alert) about the idea of robocalls.

More specifically, Foss is talking to the FCC about better ways to block those robotic menaces right at the source, before they even hit the consumer. In order to do that, fully 39 state Attorneys General got together to bring a formal request to the FCC that it be easier for major telecommunications companies to actually implement such systems — systems similar to those currently offered by Nomorobo — into current operations. Foss, meanwhile, arrived in Washington with a sheaf of consumer comments — some 20,481 such comments at last report — and put the question directly to the FCC whether or not said agency would make it clear that telecoms did indeed have the ability to add such features to systems without running afoul of the FCC itself.

Foss knows from whence he speaks in such an incident; back in 2013, Nomorobo won the FTC (News - Alert) Robocall Challenge, a challenge established by the Federal Trade Commission in a bid to find a means to shut down the robocall at its source. However, there was still a call for at least some robocalling; schools routinely use robocalls as a means to inform staff of school cancellations from the second such are established, and doctors' offices likewise put them to work in reminding patients of appointments. Thus, the winner had to allow the “good” robocalls to filter through while at the same time shutting down the unwelcome calls. Nomorobo, meanwhile, accomplishes that with technology known as “simultaneous ring,” which allows incoming calls to be routed to a second line. Nomorobo then answers this second line, and if it's an illegal robocall, hangs up before the call even reaches the user.

Foss offered up some commentary on his Washington trip, saying “It's time for big telecom companies to stop hiding behind legal technicalities. Besides being annoying, illegal robocalls have led to millions of dollars in phone fraud. Using currently available technology, like Nomorobo, the major carriers can easily protect their customers.”

Robocalls are one of those technologies that have some good uses, and some good ideas — just ask anyone who works at a school how good it is to get those “Honeywell (News - Alert) calls” as some call such — that make it very hard to outright ban a technology's use altogether. But thankfully, what one technology can do, another can often undo (though even this philosophy is often abused), and that leads to things like Nomorobo. It's tempting here to say that, instead of just blanket installing Nomorobo, it should be a matter left to each individual consumer, but given how many consumers so far are interested in a robocalling block like Nomorobo, and how many likely didn't know such a block was available, it would make some sense to put it in right at the provider level.

It will likely be some time before we see the results of this effort, but it may well be that, before too much longer has passed, our phones will stop ringing with the voices of people we'll never see.