Today, Attorney General JB McCuskey announced Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, expanding the crackdown on illegal robocalls to include four of the largest voice providers in the country. As part of an ongoing investigation, the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force has directed Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless to stop transmitting suspected illegal robocalls across their networks.
“Phase 1 of this operation has already helped stem the flow of robocalls throughout the country and Phase 2 is a big next step in addressing the problem,” Attorney General McCuskey said. “Robocalls are not only a nuisance, they put people at risk of falling for scams, that is why this taskforce is doing everything within its power to investigate and crack down on these providers.”
In August, Attorney General McCuskey sent warning letters to 37 smaller voice providers that were allowing suspected illegal robocalls onto the U.S. telephone network. This next phase targets companies with far larger footprints in the U.S. telecom ecosystem. The four companies are continuing to transmit hundreds of thousands - and in some cases, millions - of suspected illegal robocalls.
Scope of Suspected Illegal Robocall Activity
Inteliquent 9,712 450 million 1.425 billion
Bandwidth 3,060 162.7 million 301 million
Peerless 5,662 210.7 million 585.3 million
Lumen 7,265 261.5 million 886.2 million
*Column 1: Total Traceback Notices (since 2019)
*Column 2: Estimated Amazon/Apple Imposter Robocalls (3-year period)
*Column 3: Estimated SSA/IRS Imposter Robocalls (3–4-year period)
The above chart shows the scale of suspected illegal robocall activity linked to each company. The first column reflects how many traceback notices each company has received since 2019. A traceback notice is an official alert from industry investigators indicating that a company transmitted a call tied to a suspected illegal robocall campaign. The next two columns estimate the major scam categories – such as fake Amazon, Apple, Social Security, or IRS calls – that moved through each company’s network. Together, the data shows both the specific types of scams these companies helped transmit and the staggering volume of robocalls flowing across their systems.
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 Has Already Delivered Results
After sending warning letters to 37 companies, the Task Force saw rapid, measurable changes:
- 13 companies were removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database, meaning no provider in the United States may accept their call traffic.
- 19 companies stopped appearing in any traceback results, indicating they ceased routing suspected illegal robocalls.
- At least four providers terminated high-risk customer accounts identified as transmitting illegal traffic.
In 2022, 51 attorneys general joined forces to create the Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which is led by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The Task Force investigates and takes legal action against companies responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the United States.