(KAIR)--Twelve of the nation’s largest telecommunications companies have agreed to adopt a set of principles that will help state attorneys general protect Americans from illegal robocalls. That’s according to a news release issued Friday by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

The agreement, signed by Schmidt, attorneys general from the 49 other states and the District of Columbia, as well as representatives from the 12 telecom companies, outline a set of eight principles to fight illegal robocalls through both prevention and enforcement efforts.

The companies involved in the coalition are AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon and Windstream.

The news release says the principles “are the result of a working group of state attorneys general working with industry representatives since August 2018.”

Schmidt’s office has participated in the working group’s discussions.

 The attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division works to enforce do-not-call laws and protect Kansas consumers from being harassed and scammed by robocalls.

The nearly 48 billion robocalls made in 2018 made them the number one source of consumer complaints to the FTC and the FCC and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in consumer losses.