What’s On the Do-Not-Call List, Stays On the Do-Not-Call List

Thanks to the FCC, consumers no longer have to re-register their phone numbers on the DNC list.

By Bill Mickey
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

On Monday, the FCC modified its rules governing the National Do-Not-Call Registry relieving consumers of the responsibility to renew their registration. From now on, phone numbers will not expire after the five-year registration period.

According to a Federal Register notice, “Consistent with the Do not Call Improvement Act of 2007 (DNC Act), the Commission extends this requirement indefinitely to minimize the inconvenience to consumers of having to re-register their preferences not to receive telemarketing calls and to further the underlying goal of the National Registry to protect consumer privacy rights.”

The permanence of the numbers, says the Commission, will have the added benefit of keeping the National Registry more accurate. Currently, the database administrator checks all the numbers in the Registry monthly against a national database of numbers and removes any disconnected or reassigned numbers.

According to the Commission, sellers and telemarketers should not be any more adversely affected than they were prior to the amendment. Businesses, says the notice, “can continue to access the Registry on an area-code-by-area-code basis and need only purchase those area codes in which the seller intends to telemarket.”