The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to release a robocall mitigation scorecard, grading phone companies on their effectiveness in blocking illegal spam calls. The scorecards will include call-blocking statistics, customer complaints, and enforcement actions, with providers potentially rated on a number scale, letter grades, or by risk level.

The proposed tool aims to empower consumers and encourage providers to combat illegal robocalls, but its usefulness will depend on how it's designed, how easy each provider’s scorecard is to find, and what data sources it relies on. The scorecard will apply to domestic voice service providers with retail customers, excluding telcos that operate as wholesale or intermediate providers.

“As proposed, the FCC aims to develop a scorecard that will give consumers more information about the measures providers are taking to fight illegal robocalls, and it will also incentivize providers to improve their efforts,” said FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in a press release.

The scorecard is part of the FCC’s top consumer protection priority, which is to combat the scourge of illegal robocalls. Whether this tool will truly make a difference in protecting consumers from spam calls remains to be seen.