US Regulator Confirms - No Plans to Allow Telemarketers to Call Cell Phones

­For several years there has been a rumor circulating around the USA, mostly by e-mail, that a nationwide directory of cell phone numbers will be made available to telemarketers, and that consumers will start receiving telemarketing calls on their cell phones.

The US telecoms regulator, the FCC has now issued a statement that there is no truth to this rumor. Cell phone numbers are not being released to telemarketers, and customers will not be getting telemarketing calls on their cell phone. FCC rules prohibit the use of autodialers and prerecorded messages to call cell phones without the consumer's consent. Thus, most telemarketers are barred from contacting consumers on their cell phones.

The e-mail spreading the rumor often suggests that consumers put their cell phone numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. This is the correct contact information for the National Do-Not-Call Registry. Consumers may register their cell phone numbers as an extra protection against unwanted telemarketing calls, although most telemarketing calls to cell phones would be illegal regardless of whether the number is listed on the Do-Not-Call Registry.

Posted to the site on 17th September 2009