The major broadband associations got together to propose the safe harbor they are seeking from liability for "unintentionally or inadvertently blocked, mislabeled, or misidentified" calls in its effort to stem illegal robocalls. 

Both the FCC and Congress are requiring broadband voice providers to implement default robocall blocking (the SHAKEN/STIR regime). 

Related: Robocall Bill Headed to President's Desk 

In a meeting with FCC staffers last week, according to FCC documents, representatives of CTIA, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association and USTelecom said that the FCC needed to adopt a broad liability "safe harbor" based on "reasonable analytics." 

They noted that the FCC has given them "more tools" to battle illegal robocalls, they also needed some protection from liability for friendly fire, as it were. "[A] broad and flexible safe harbor is needed to enable voice service providers to take more aggressive actions to relieve consumers from the torrent of robocalls." (as the reporter was typing these words, he was hanging up the latest in a series of unwanted robocalls).

In the recently passed TRACED Act, which mandated default robocall blocking, a safe harbor was mandated by Dec. 30, with the FCC allowed to come up with the shape of that harbor. 

Related: Pai Dials Up Cross-Border SHAKEN/STIR First 

They want the FCC to create a harbor that fits good-faith efforts to block calls that might result in blocking legitimate calls. 

Helpfully, the groups also provided their own map to that safe harbor: 

Safe Harbor 

"A voice service provider that unintentionally or inadvertently blocked, mislabeled, or misidentified the level of trust for a call shall be deemed to be in compliance with the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and the Commission’s rules, and shall not be liable in any enforcement action or adjudicative proceeding, including any civil action, if, at the time the provider blocked or mislabeled the call or misidentified the call’s level of trust: 

  i. "The blocking, labeling, or identification was initiated by the provider at the network level or was pursuant to tools offered to consumers on an opt-in or opt-out basis and was in connection with an event that the provider had a good-faith reason to believe was an illegal or unwanted robocall event because the provider took one or more reasonable action(s) including, but not limited to, the following: 

    A. "Performed research on the phone number to reasonably determine the call was highly likely to be an illegal robocall; 

    B. "Implemented reasonable procedures to block calls in a manner consistent with the Commission’s rules; or 

    C. "Utilized reasonable analytics, which may include information provided by call authentication frameworks. 

  ii. "The provider had procedures in place for blocking, labeling, or identification that were reasonably likely to confirm that calls blocked, labeled, or identified were limited to illegal or unwanted robocalls and the provider followed these procedures; 

  iii. "The provider had procedures in place to address reported incidents of unintentional or inadvertent blocking, mislabeling, or misidentification of such calls; and 

  iv. "The provider made reasonable efforts to avoid blocking, mislabeling, or misidentifying emergency public safety calls." 

Comcast said that Xfinity Mobile users can now download the Hiya app to get alerts on which incoming calls are spam.

The free app also identifies calls from common businesses, and it also allows users to block calls from entire area codes.

The collaboration with the robocall-blocking app maker Hiya represents the cable operator’s latest move to combat the robocalling problem. The activity comes as the FCC is putting pressure on communications companies to find solutions.

Comcast also said that it will implement SHAKEN/STIR techniques in areas where it is enabled by MVNO partner Verizon for an additional layer of security.

RELATED: Comcast and AT&T Successfully Test Solution to Stop Robocalling

STIR is short for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited. The SHAKEN acronym is a bit more of a reach — it stands for Secure Handling of Asserted (information using) Tokens. The “ken” in token comprises the last part of the acronym. The protocol seeks to authenticate calls by using digital certificates that determine where the call actually originates from.

In March, Comcast said it has partnered with AT&T to successfully test a solution — based on the SHAKEN/STIR protocols — to stop robocalling between various landline services.

In April, T-Mobile and Comcast announced another partnership to combat robocalling by using SHAKEN/STIR to authenticate calls made between their respective networks.

Pai, Ajit Pai likes his robocalls SHAKEN and STIR-red 

The FCC chairman is pushing carriers to adopt the SHAKEN (Secure Handling of Asserted [information using) Tokens/STIR (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited) robocaller-ID protocol, which he said he expects them to do before the year is out, and says if they don't do so voluntarily he is ready to regulate them into it. 

Pai has made cracking down on unwanted robcalls--there are billions of robocalls annually--an avowed priority and is under pressure from Congress to do so as well. 

Related: Comcast and T-Mobile Announce STIR/SHAKEN Partnership 

Pai said Monday the FCC will hold a summit July 11 to vet industry progress and address any challenges to getting that done. Various carriers have indicated they are already on it.

“I’ve repeatedly demanded that major voice service providers implement a strong call authentication framework this year. I want to hear from them on the progress they’ve made toward meeting this goal," Pai said Monday (May 13) in a statement.  

But if that progress is not forthcoming, the generally deregulatory Pai shook the big stick of regulation. 

"We chose this industry-led path because it is the fastest way to help consumers, but I remain committed to taking regulatory action—action for which we’ve already laid the groundwork—if major carriers do not implement the SHAKEN/STIR framework this year," he said.  

But he would still prefer a marketplace solution. "A regulatory process would likely take more than a year, would be required by law to leave open the question of which specific standard would be adopted, and would potentially get bogged down in litigation," he said. 

SHAKEN/STIR is an effort to authenticate calls using digital certificates identifying where a call originates and providing a verification display on the phone.  

An AT&T spokesman pointed out that it has info about robocalls at its consumer awareness website; that is has teamed up with Comcast to share authenticated calls, that AT&T has free, automatic in-network systems that label or block billions of unwanted/illegal robocalls and that scam and fraud labeling began in 2018. 

A Verizon spokesman said that company has taken many steps in the past year, including "the deployment of STIR/SHAKEN in our network connections with some other carriers, including one major, and plans to add the largets providers in the next "few months. "As that happens, we're continually looking for ways to battle these bad actors," he said. "We know it's an annoyance to our customers and we're committed to try and stop these irritating practices." 

Daniel Frankel contributed to this report.