DMA Asks FCC to Hold Off on Wireless Rule
The Direct Marketing Association, fearful that some of its members are headed for legal problems, has asked the Federal Communication Commission to hold off on an enforcing a rule prohibiting auto-dialer telemarketing calls to wireless numbers.
The problem is that direct marketers have no way of coping with telephone number portability, DMA executives said in a letter to the FCC. Starting this month, consumers can “port” their numbers and use the same number for both their landline phones and cell phones.
The DMA, although it runs a wireless phone suppression service, has no way of knowing when a number has been ported. This could put members into violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, prohibiting solicitation calls to wireless phones.
The FCC said in an order on portability last week that there are “various solutions that will enable telemarketers to identify wireless numbers,” in effect asking the industry to solve the problem, according to the DMA.
The DMA, seeking to find that solution, contacted Neustar to obtain data on numbers that have been ported to wireless service. However, Neustar, the sole repository of such data “has ignored our repeated requests, in effect refusing to cooperate,” the DMA charged.
According to the DMA, its current Wireless Suppression Service list will “continue to function as it does currently for new numbers that are issued to wireless carriers,” but will not “eliminate the problem that arises with intermodal porting.”
The FCC recently estimated that six million customers will “try to port to wireless within the first week alone,” the DMA wrote.
The DMA asked that “the violations of the TCPA that will undoubtedly occur as a result of wireless-to-wireless porting are not actionable until further notice.”
The letter was addressed to K. Dane Snowden, bureau chief of the FCC
