Attorney General Coleman Targets Major Telecom Companies In Robocall Crackdown

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has launched an investigation into four major telecom “voice providers” as part of a new phase in a nationwide crackdown on illegal robocalls, ordering them to stop carrying suspected scam traffic.​

What Coleman Announced

Coleman announced that his office, working within a bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 attorneys general, is targeting Inteliquent, Bandwidth, Lumen, and Peerless Network. The Task Force has directed these companies to immediately cease transmitting suspected illegal robocalls across their networks or face potential legal consequences.​

Why These Telecom Companies

Investigators say these four providers have collectively carried hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of suspected illegal robocalls, including scam campaigns impersonating Amazon, Apple, the IRS, and Social Security. Industry “traceback” data shows they received thousands of formal notices tying their networks to high-volume scam campaigns but continued to route that traffic.​

Link to Operation Robocall Roundup

This action is described as Phase 2 of “Operation Robocall Roundup,” an ongoing multistate initiative against illegal robocalls. Phase 1, launched earlier in 2025, focused on 37 smaller voice providers, resulting in several companies being removed from the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database and others disappearing from traceback reports.​

What It Means for Consumers

The goal is to cut off scam traffic higher up the telecom chain so fewer fraudulent robocalls ever reach consumers’ phones. Coleman and other attorneys general emphasize that the move is meant to protect residents—particularly seniors—from financial fraud and to pressure large providers to more aggressively block known bad actors.​