Congress Seeks to Make Do-Not-Call List Permanent

Congress wants toleave phone numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry indefinitely.

In December, the Senate (S. 2096) and the House (H.R. 3541) passed bills that would allow numbers to remain permanently on the list rather than for five years under the original 2003 legislation. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation, making the list permanent. The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) and the American Teleservices Association (www.ataconnect.org) support the bills.

Both bills call for the Federal Trade Commission to update the list of discon­nected and reassigned numbers “periodically” rather than the FTC’s current practice of once a month. In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, which proposed amending its rules to allow consumers to keep their numbers on the list indefinitely unless the number is reas­signed or disconnected, NAA argued that the list needs to be updated as soon as telephone numbers are reassigned rather than waiting for the FTC to scrub the registry monthly.

NAA also urged the agency to interpret the word “periodically” as regular intervals that are as frequent as possible but no less than once a month. NAA also suggested that the FCC require telephone companies to report the complete set of data points as automatically and as often as technology allows, so the FTC can purge the numbers more than once a month.

“A more accurate and up-to-dateregistry would be beneficial to consumers and telemarketers alike,” comments from NAA stated.

Currently, disconnected phone numbers are not removed from the list unless they are reassigned, which may take up to six months, the comments said. But the ability to reach consumers, especially those new to an area, is critical in soliciting new subscriptions and subscription renewals. In 2006, 35 percent of new subscriptions—the largest source—came from newspaper telemarketing calls, according to NAA’s “2007 Circulation Facts, Figures & Logic.”

More than 145 million phone numbers have been registered since 2003, according to the FTC, with 50 million numbers due to expire this year unless consumers re-regis­ter them for another five-year period. The FTC is leaving all numbers on the registry with legislation pending.

Mary Lynn Jones

Presstime, March 2008

First Published:
February 25, 2008