Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr made his case on Tuesday that overseas call centers pose potential national security risks because they may be compromised by foreign actors.
Last week, the Trump-appointed official proposed that the FCC bring call center jobs back to the United States, require an English proficiency standard for all customer service agents, and crack down on illegal robocalls from abroad.
Carr’s latest remarks are in furtherance of those proposals.
“We often have instances where workers at these foreign call centers, because they get paid so little, they get flipped by bad actors to access your account, to change your account,” he said at a Breitbart policy event on Tuesday. “So we think there’s a security issue with having so many call centers overseas, and so we think it makes sense to tell people it’s time to bring these jobs home.”
Carr explained that because many Americans have felt frustrated by foreign call centers over the years, the FCC is moving to break down the language or communication barriers that may arise during a caller’s interactions with a customer service agent who may not speak fluent English.
“It’s just difficult to resolve your problem,” he added. “And so we have started a proceeding to look at encouraging the onshoring of call centers. For call centers that remain abroad, we’re looking at imposing standard English proficiency requirements to try to make that communication easier.”
As part of its merger agreement with Cox Communications, Charter Communications pledged to onshore call centers as it sought FCC approval. The $34.5 billion merger was approved last month, creating the nation’s largest cable provider with over 38 million subscribers.
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“It’s a good win for customers, and it’s a good win for the country,” Carr said of the deal, which still needs approval from the California Public Utilities Commission.
The FCC is set to vote on the aforementioned proposals and more on March 26 during its scheduled open commission meeting. After the public comment period on the passed policies begins, the FCC will then take another vote to adopt them.