Attorney General Jason Miyares has announced the start of Phase 2 in the Operation Robocall Roundup initiative, which aims to curb illegal robocalls by targeting major voice service providers. The companies named in this phase—Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless—have been directed to stop transmitting calls suspected to be part of illegal robocall campaigns.
This effort is a continuation of work by the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, a bipartisan coalition formed in 2022 that includes attorneys general from across the country. The task force was established to investigate and pursue legal action against telecommunications companies that are believed to facilitate large amounts of fraudulent robocall traffic into and throughout the United States.
In August, Attorney General Miyares sent warning letters to 37 smaller voice providers suspected of enabling illegal robocalls. The current phase focuses on larger providers with a significant presence in the U.S. telecom market.
According to data released by the attorney general’s office, each provider received thousands of traceback notices since 2019. These notices serve as official alerts indicating that a company transmitted calls tied to suspected illegal robocall operations. The data also estimated that hundreds of millions or even billions of scam calls—such as those impersonating Amazon, Apple, Social Security Administration (SSA), or Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—were routed through these networks over several years.
The attorney general’s statement noted: “As larger providers, these companies have a heightened responsibility to decline call traffic from known and repeat bad actors. Despite extensive industry traceback notices and years of documented warnings, these four providers continue to route suspected illegal robocalls onto the network and into American homes.”
Phase 1 of Operation Robocall Roundup has already shown results after warning letters were sent earlier this year to smaller providers. Thirteen companies were removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database, making it so no U.S. provider can accept their call traffic. Nineteen companies stopped appearing in any traceback results, suggesting they halted routing suspected illegal robocalls. Additionally, at least four providers terminated accounts identified as high-risk for transmitting illegal traffic.
