Nomorobo, a startup that blocks telemarketing calls, earned an endorsement from telecom giant Time Warner Cable Inc., which recently announced it will provide its phone customers easy access to its third-party robocall-blocking service.
Time Warner introduced an option last week for customers to opt into Nomorobo’s service with a single click on the telecom’s phone management website. Previously, customers had to separately go through Nomorobo to use its call blocking offering. When customers receive a call to their landline, some phone carriers allow that call to ring on several phones at once. Nomorobo can be added to the list of phones that receive the call. Using its growing list of 174,000 blacklisted robocallers, it evaluates the call before automatically hanging up on an incoming robocall after one ring. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is designed to help consumers block telemarketing and robocalls but also applies to collection calls. Collection industry leaders argue blocking collection calls ultimately harms consumers as it leaves them facing potential lawsuits for delinquent accounts. The partnership carries no direct monetary value for Nomorobo because the service is free for Time Warner customers. Company founder Aaron Foss said the partnership is an acknowledgment of the usefulness of the service. To date, Nomorobo has blocked nearly 61 million calls since its founding in late 2013, he said. Foss’ patented technology relies on a landline feature known as simultaneous ring, an evolution of call forwarding. He said Time Warner’s endorsement of Nomorobo will help introduce his company’s upcoming premium service, likely to launch in four to six weeks, to more customers. For $5 a month, the premium service will allow customers to see a log of who has called or who was blocked. It also will add or remove numbers to blacklists and identify robocalls to mobile phones, Foss said.
