January 30, 2004

By: Scott Hovanyetz
Senior Reporter
scotth@dmnews.com

Compliance providers are getting closer to establishing a system that will help telemarketers avoid calls to cell phones in the era of wireless number portability, according to papers filed recently with the Federal Communications Commission.

Wireless number portability, which lets consumers keep the same phone number when they switch from landlines to wireless or switch cell phone providers, has been around for two months.

Telemarketers still have no way to keep track of consumers who switch landline numbers to cell phones. The FCC bans all telemarketing calls to cell phones when using automated dialing equipment, including predictive dialers. Telemarketers previously were able to remove blocks of telephone numbers set aside for wireless phones from their calling lists.

However, likely solutions to the problem are growing clearer. Call Compliance Inc., which provides a no-call compliance system for telemarketers, said last week it expects such a service to be available in 60 to 90 days.

Additionally, a letter filed in December by the Direct Marketing Association and Neustar, a private telecommunications network administrator, indicated that the two have settled an often cantankerous relationship and that the DMA is helping Neustar produce a solution of its own. Neustar maintains the database that tracks telephone numbers that have been switched.

The Direct Marketing Association filed a petition yesterday asking the Federal Communications Commission to create safe-harbor rules for telemarketers trying to avoid calls to cell phones in the era of wireless number portability.

The petition, filed jointly with the Newspaper Association of America, asks for standards that would give telemarketers some level of protection from prosecution for accidental violations of the ban on telemarketing calls to cell phones using automated dialers.

An FCC spokeswoman did not return calls for comment last week. Though the FCC had said it planned to enforce the ban on telemarketing calls to cell phones after the late November launch of wireless number portability, the agency has yet to file any complaints.

In a Jan. 27 letter to the FCC, Call Compliance described a meeting earlier in the month involving FCC officials, itself and its business partner, VeriSign, in which it said it would make the portability database available to telemarketers. VeriSign is a telecom network provider that provides backbone technology to Call Compliance.

And in a Dec. 18 letter to the FCC sent by the DMA's law firm, Venable LLP, the DMA described a meeting involving itself, Neustar, the Newspaper Association of America and FCC officials.

At that meeting, the parties discussed development of a system by which Neustar would make the wireless portability database available to telemarketers for download via a secure Web site. Details about the download mechanism, how often telemarketers would have to download, parameters of the data file and pricing needed to be discussed, according to the letter.

A Neustar spokesman said he had no further information about this proposal since the letter was filed. But he said Neustar anticipated that such a system would be made available in the future.

Relations between Neustar and the DMA have been rocky in the past. The DMA had accused Neustar of refusing to cooperate in developing a portability compliance solution for telemarketers.

On Dec. 2, the DMA filed a letter with the FCC saying that Neustar refused its request to grant it direct access to the wireless portability database and that it withdrew its previous offer of providing telemarketers with a Web site from which they could download the database. According to the DMA, Neustar offered no explanation for either refusal.

Other compliance options offered by Neustar involved telemarketers obtaining cell phone switch information piecemeal from individual telecom providers that do the switches, the DMA said in the letter. However, with about 700 providers in the United States , such a process would be burdensome, and smaller telemarketers likely would risk fines rather than go to such lengths to comply, the DMA said.

Apparently, between the Dec. 2 and Dec. 18 letters, Neustar changed its mind. The Neustar spokesman said he had no further information about exchanges between the DMA and his company.

Call Compliance's approach differs in that it would not provide a suppression list of cell numbers to telemarketers for download. Instead, Call Compliance would screen outbound telemarketing calls as they leave the call center and block calls to suppressed numbers.

The telemarketer never has to physically download the data, which is maintained by Call Compliance. The solution would work in the same way as Call Compliance's existing TeleBlock no-call blocking service.

Call Compliance does not offer its services directly to telemarketers. Instead, it partners with telephone carriers, which offer TeleBlock to their telemarketing customers as an add-on service.

The carriers have access to the wireless portability database and thus can screen outbound calls, said Dean Garfinkel, chairman of Call Compliance, Glen Cove , NY . About 26 million cell phone numbers are in the portability database out of 160 million cell phones nationwide.

Under Neustar's method, telemarketers would download new data and scrub their lists daily, a potentially burdensome chore, Garfinkle said. With the national no-call list, telemarketers have to download an update quarterly.

Call Compliance's solution has another advantage over Neustar's in that it is updated in real time, Garfinkle said. The FCC bans all automated-dialer calls to cell phones and does not make exceptions for telemarketers who scrub their lists daily but accidentally make a violation.