Three years after laws went into result to protect consumers from robocalls, a community gain advocacy throng says less than half of phone companies are in lawful operation.

That means many consumers are still subject to annoying robocalls and robotexts, which also makes them more susceptible to scams, said the U.S. PIRG Education fund.

While scam robocalls and illegal telemarketing calls have dropped by 17% since a federal law was implemented in 2021 requiring phone companies to reduce unwanted calls, 47% of the phone companies are complying and have completely installed the anti-robocall technology, PIRG said in a newly released update and analysis, called “Ringing in our Fears 2024.” The organization has reviewed the advancement made by phone companies yearly since 2021.

“It is completely inexcusable that you have less than half the phone providers in this country that are completely using this technology to protect their customers,” Teresa Murray, PIRG’s customer watchdog director and author of the update, told USA TODAY.

“Yes, there’s been some advancement, but there’s still a lot more that needs to be done to protect people, and not all of it is from the FCC (Federal Communications fee) or even the phone companies, because we feel like a lot needs to be done in the financial services throng, particularly banks, to protect their customers,” Murray said.

More protections require to be put in place to protect consumers using peer to peer settlement apps, such as Zelle, from risks of fraud, Murray said.

Additionally, the volume of scam robotexts has nearly tripled since 2021, “as impoverished guys flocked to unregulated texts instead of calls,” the update said.

The Federal Communications fee, which regulates the telecom industry, took issue with the PIRG update.

“It is incorrect to state that most providers are not complying with caller ID authentication requirements,” an FCC spokesman said.

Nearly every provider is required to implement the protections wherever feasible in their networks, the spokesman said. “In narrow exceptions where implementation is not feasible, all providers are nevertheless still required to receive action to prevent illegal robocalls on their networks, and must file robocall mitigation plans with the FCC.”

For some providers, some of their networks are still copper wire and are not Internet Protocol-based and can’t technologically implement the requirements, the FCC said.

“This can often include large providers whose footprints may include a variety of technologies in their networks as well as those serving rural or remote areas.”

What are the laws about robocalls?

The FCC phased in requirements for phone companies to fight robocalls, starting with the largest companies in 2021 and rolling into smaller companies in 2022 and 2023, PIRG said in its update. Currently, only lower-tech phone companies, such as those with traditional copper lines used for landlines, and a tiny number of others granted extensions, can operate without updated technology.

Not all unwanted robocalls and robotexts are illegal, PIRG said, but most are. Here’s what’s legal and not, according to PIRG:

• Two types of calls are always illegal: telemarketing calls, even if from a live person, if you are on the Do Not Call list and calls aimed at deceiving or defrauding you.
• Telemarketing calls to your home phone are generally illegal if you did not provide advanced written consent.
• Telemarketing calls to your cell phone are generally illegal without advanced written consent and non-telemarketing calls are generally prohibited without your verbal or written consent.
• Robotexts to your cell phone are generally illegal if they are autodialed commercial texts without your written consent and autodialed non-commercial texts without verbal consent.
• Political robocalls and robotexts are different: political robocalls and robotexts to cell phones require advance consent, but texts sent manually can be sent without advanced consent. Political calls with pre-recorded messages require consent in advance but political robocalls to landlines are permitted without advance consent, though they can’t exceed three calls in a 30-day period.

What companies are not in lawful operation?

According to an analysis of publicly-available reports by PIRG, these major U.S. companies are partially in lawful operation with the robocall technology rules:

• AT&T  Corp
• AT&T Mobility
• Cox Communications
• Liberty Cablevision
• Optimum by Altice
• Sparklite (Cable One)
• Spectrum VOIP

X2nSat is not in lawful operation with any parts of the robocall technology law, according to PIRG.

Companies respond

Attempts were made by USA TODAY to contact each of the companies for comment, in addition to two telecommunications industry trade groups.

A spokesperson for US Telecom, a throng representing much of the industry, said its providers were in lawful operation with the law.

“With the exception of the impoverished actor providers that the industry traces back illegal calls to every day, carriers have done that,” the spokesperson said, adding that the FCC’s rules do not require deployment of the anti-robocall technology on legacy networks or those with copper wire.

The FCC has required carriers develop “call authentication standards” for non-Internet Protocol networks, the US Telecom spokesperson said.

“Carriers are also in lawful operation with this rule and that work is on-going,” the spokesperson said.

An AT&T spokesperson said the corporation was in lawful operation with rules for the “Internet Protocol (IP) portion of our network.  We will continue to work closely with the FCC and others in the industry to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls.”

A spokesperson for Altice USA / Optimum said the corporation was in lawful operation with the laws and had one portion of its network that had not yet been upgraded to Internet Protocol. That portion had been granted an extension by the FCC, the corporation said.

A Cox Communications spokesman also said the corporation was in lawful operation for its IP networks and has an extension for its non-IP networks, which is less than 1% of its business clients supported by legacy phone systems.

In a phone interview, Garrett Hill, CEO of X2nSat, said that while his corporation filled out the FCC required update and clicked on the selection that stated it was not compliant, his corporation is a satellite phone corporation that doesn’t propose customer phone services. Hill believes the rule is not applicable to his corporation.

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What can consumers do to protect themselves?

Here are some tips from PIRG:

1. Sign up for the Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov. It won’t stop all unwanted calls, but provides you with more rights.
2. If you get an unexpected call, text or email, don’t respond). If you ponder the contact may be legitimate, independently look for the number and contact the organization.
3. Don’t pay if you receive an unexpected request for money via any instant settlement way alternative or gift cards. Don’t be fooled by an urgent request.

Betty Lin-Fisher is a customer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] or pursue her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include customer information on Fridays,here.