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AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson got interrupted by a robocall while on stage at an Economic Club event in Washington on Wednesday, proving that no one's immune from the tele-plague.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson gets a robocall while onstage at @TheEconomicClub. pic.twitter.com/i5llHj6hz2 — CSPAN (@cspan) March 20, 2019

"I'm getting a robocall, too," Stephenson said after checking an incoming call on his Apple Watch. "It's literally a robocall."

He declined the call and got a laugh from the audience, but the timing of the incident couldn't have been better. AT&T and Comcast on Wednesday announced they'll offer call authentication between networks to stem the tide of unwanted robocalls. Previously, such systems only worked on calls to and from the same provider.

That service followed the Federal Communications Commission demanding that carriers implement robust caller ID authentication systems by the end of 2019 or face "regulatory intervention."

In January, a report revealed that 26.3 billion robocalls were made in the US in 2018, a rise of 46 percent from the previous year.

AT&T didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

First published at 3:37 a.m. PT.

Updated at 4:16 a.m. PT: Adds background.