FCC Proposes Enhanced 'Know-Your-Upstream-Provider' Requirements

The Federal Communications Commission proposed new, more specific Know-Your-Upstream-Provider requirements to hold voice service providers accountable for ensuring bad actor providers are eliminated from the voice ecosystem. The proposal also looks to enhance the STIR/SHAKEN framework to ensure that caller ID authentication is broadly implemented and maximally effective at deterring illegal robocalls. The proposed enhanced KYUP requirements are designed to expose providers that enable illegal calls and root them out of the voice ecosystem. Today, voice service providers have a general obligation to know the providers that send them voice traffic, but some providers evade or ignore this obligation, permitting bad actors to use their network or services to transmit illegal calls that defraud consumers. The proposal seeks to raise the bar to ensure that all voice service providers in a call path are vetted. Under the proposal, providers would be required to collect information about upstream providers, verify that information, monitor their upstream providers’ traffic and practices, and refuse or discontinue service when the evidence shows an upstream provider is a bad actor.