Washington DC (CNN) The Federal Communications Commission unveiled a proposal Wednesday to limit the scourge of unwanted robocalls, a measure that would give phone companies wide latitude to block those calls by default.

The plan, if approved, could go into effect later this year and allow carriers to apply robocall-blocking technologies to customer accounts automatically.

Americans received more than 26 billion robocalls last year — a 46% increase over the year before, according to a study by the Seattle-based spam monitoring service Hiya.

Companies have been working on a variety of techniques to thwart spam callers, but many have been reluctant to release them widely over fears that the technology could be considered illegal by regulators, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who added his proposal aims to put those fears to rest.

"Allowing call blocking by default could be a big benefit for consumers who are sick and tired of robocalls," Pai said in a statement. "By making it clear that such call blocking is allowed, the FCC will give voice service providers the legal certainty they need to block unwanted calls from the outset so that consumers never have to get them."

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