BILL NUMBER: S6267A

SPONSOR: COONEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general business law, in relation to telecommuni-
cation companies blocking certain numbers

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To allow telecommunication companies to block robocalls from certain
numbers.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section one of the bill amends the general business law by adding a new
section 399-z-1. Subdivision one sets out relevant definitions.  Subdi-
vision two sets out the types of calls that telecommunication providers
shall block.

First, providers shall block a voice call when the subscriber to which
              

the originating number is assigned has requested that calls purporting
to originate from that number be blocked because the number is used for
inbound calls only. Next, providers shall block calls originating from
the following numbers: (i) a number that is not a valid North American
numbering plan number; (ii) a valid North American numbering plan number
that is not allocated to a provider by the North American numbering plan
administrator or the pooling administrator; and (iii) a valid North
American numbering plan number that is allocated to a provider by the
North American number plan administrator or pooling administrator, but
is unused, so long as the provider blocking the calls is the allocate of
the number and confirms that the number is unused or has obtained
verification from the allocated that the number is unused at the time of
the blocking.

Section one also states that providers shall not block a voice call if
the call is an emergency call placed to 911 or if a subscriber has
requested that no inbound calls be blocked. Further, it exempts any
voice service provider who is in compliance with federal call blocking
rules and regulations.

Section two provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Unwanted robocalls are the top consumer complaint received by the Feder-
al Communications Commission (FCC), representing over sixty percent of
all complaints received.* It is estimated that Americans received about
16.3 billion robocalls in the first five months of 2018 alone.** In the
month of September 2018, roughly 4.4 billion robocalls were reported.***
These numbers continue to rise and the predictions for the expected
number of robocalls in the coming year are staggering. In 2017, only
about 3.7% of all calls to cell phones were considered to be robo-
calls.**** In 2018, that number rose to about 29% and by 2019, it is
expected that at least 45% of all calls to cell phones will be robo-
calls.*****

In efforts to combat this issue, the FCC released a rule in November of
2017 to allow phone service providers to proactively block robocalls
originating from certain numbers.****** These would include calls that
are the most likely to be illegitimate, as they are coming from numbers
that actually do not or cannot make outgoing calls.******* These types
of numbers are indicative of "spoofing" schemes wherein the true caller
identity is masked behind a fake, invalid number. There is also a common
practice of consumers receiving calls from such invalid numbers which
show up as a local call on their caller ID, prompting many to pick up
only to realize it is a robocall.

This legislation mirrors the provisions in the FCC rule and would
require telecommunication providers to block calls coming from numbers
that are not valid North American numbering plan numbers, numbers that
are valid but are not allocated to a provider, and valid numbers allo-
cated to a provider but are unused. The bill would also require provid-
ers to block calls when the subscriber assigned to a number has
requested that calls purporting to originate from such number be blocked
because such number is in fact used only for inbound calls.

Robocalls present a significant nuisance for New Yorkers on a daily
basis and as figures indicate, the issue will only continue to worsen
unless preventive measures are implemented to combat this problem.
Mirroring the protections set out by the Federal rule in New York State
Law and requiring telecommunication providers to block these calls will
afford much needed safeguards to decrease the number of unwanted robo-
calls New Yorkers receive.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2020: A.2230A, reported referred to rules / S.4764, referred to consumer
protection.

2019: A.2230A, amended and recommitted to consumer affairs and
protection / S.4764, referred to consumer protection.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATION:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
* See FCC press release- FCC Adopts Rules to Allow Phone Companies to
Proactively Block Illegal Robocalls. November 16, 2017. See also "The
FCC's Push to Combat Robocalls & Spoofing."