Illinois could soon become the first state to ban telemarketing calls to cell phones.
In the next month, Gov. George Ryan is expected to sign a bill into law that would ban unsolicited telemarketing calls to cell phones and one that would create the state’s first telemarketing do-not-call registry.
Both measures, sponsored by Republican State Sen. Todd Sieben, won the approval of state lawmakers earlier this week.
On Wednesday, a day after lawmakers passed SB-1830 authorizing creation of the telemarketing do-not-call list, both the General Assembly and State Senate approved SB-1637, the bill prohibiting unsolicited telemarketing calls to cell phones.
Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president, government affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, dismisses the cell phone bill as unworkable.
“With the portability of cell phones, the real problem generally is determining which exchange is used for land lines and which is used for cell phones,” he said. There “has to be a mechanism developed so marketers can tell if the telephone number they have is for a land-line phone or a cell phone and so far we haven’t seen it.”
While Illinois would join 28 other states to operate a telemarketing do-not-call list, it would become one of the few, if not the first in the nation, to ban unsolicited telemarketing calls to cell phones.
That ban would go into effect Jan. 1, 2003. The state’s do-not-call list program is scheduled to kick off July 1.
Illinois residents would be charged $5 to have their names and phone numbers placed on the do-not-call list maintained by the Commerce Commission at an annual cost of $1 million. The program would be partially funded by telemarketers who would be charged up to $1,000 for a copy of the state’s do-not-call list.
Telemarketers calling Illinois residents on the do-not-call list or those with cell phones could face fines of up to $1,000 per call.
Network
