(credit: SRU.edu)

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in May that his company doesn’t have “permission” or “the appropriate authority” to block robocalls, even though the Federal Communications Commission clearly stated last year that carriers have the “green light” to offer robocall-blocking services to cell phone users. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler last week urged carriers to “offer call-blocking services to their customers now—at no cost to [consumers],” and AT&T has dropped its previous reluctance in response.

In a post titled “Answering the call on robocalling,” AT&T Senior VP Bob Quinn yesterday said that Stephenson will chair the new “Robocalling Strike Force, the mission of which will be to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions to abate the proliferation of robocalls and to make recommendations to the FCC on the role government can play in this battle.”