Robocall Blocking

        I do not know of any person who does not hate them. They seem to be sneaking into our lives more and more. Solutions are available, or soon to be available to stem the tide, but they will not end soon.


The Federal Communications Commission announced new rules it said would tackle the avalanche of robocalls we are receiving, but did not offer anything that is not available now. It said it would vote on a ruling that would allow phone companies to have call-blocking as a default, implement strong call-blocking services as the default setting for their customers and to make it easier for us to block unwanted calls. "That means your phone is only going to ring if the call is coming from somebody in your list of contacts," said FCC chairman Ajit Pai.

Until that is finalized, here are a few things more we can do now to eliminate the vast majority of them.

For IPhone users, in Settings, click on “Do Not Disturb” and “Allow Calls From” then “All Contacts.”

For Android, in the Phone app, click the three lines on the top right of the screen, select Settings then Block Numbers, then click on "Block Unknown Callers." Only numbers from your contacts will ring.

There does not appear a way to have phone mail blocked from anyone, but if we can at least eliminate the ring, it is a good first step to eliminate distractions and you can listen to voice mail at your convenience and add the number to contacts if it is someone you want to hear from.