Commission Seeks to Extend Do-Not-Call Registry Beyond 5-Year Limit

On November 27, the Commission adopted a NPRM that examined whether numbers placed on the Do-Not-Call registry should be kept on the list beyond the current 5-year period. The NPRM proposes that telemarketers would be obligated to honor the registrations either until the number was removed by consumers or the database administrator, due to disconnection or reassignment.

Extension of the Do-Not-Call registry rules would prolong the tension between the Commission’s existing Customer Proprietary Network Information (“CPNI”) rules and telemarketing regulation. If a subscriber is listed on a Do-Not-Call registry, the carrier or marketer would not be permitted to contact that customer via telephone, even if contact would be permissible under the existing CPNI regime.