Nashville, TN – Today, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Phase 2 of Operation Robocall Roundup, expanding the crackdown on illegal robocalls to include four of the largest telecommunications companies in the country. Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless have collectively facilitated an estimated 3.4 billion scam calls nationwide since 2020.

“These aren’t small players. They are some of the largest telecom companies that form the backbone of America’s phone network,” said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. “Despite action by Attorneys General across the country, they continue to profit from routing these illegal calls into millions of American homes. We are intensifying enforcement against these bad actors to ensure stronger safeguards for consumers.”

The Problem at Scale

The first column in the table 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 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

In August, as part of Phase 1, Attorney General Skrmetti and the Task Force sent warning letters to 37 smaller companies, producing immediate results:

• 13 companies were removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database, cutting off their ability to route calls in the US.
• 19 companies stopped appearing in any traceback results, indicating they ceased routing suspected illegal robocalls.
• At least 4 providers terminated high-risk customer accounts identified as transmitting illegal traffic.

The Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, formed in 2022 by 51 Attorneys General, investigates and takes legal action against companies responsible for significant volumes of illegal and fraudulent robocall traffic routed into and across the United States.