DMA Offers Interim Wireless Service

The Direct Marketing Association has launched a wireless suppression service to help its members avoid making unsolicited calls to cell phones. But the system will have a limited life in its current form.

The reason is that starting in November 2003, consumers will be able to “port their home number” so that home numbers and cell numbers are interchangeable, according to Joseph W. Sanscrainte, general counsel for Call Compliance in Glen, Cove, NY.

At that point, the DMA will have to find a way to add numbers ported over to cellular,” said DMA president H. Robert Wientzen. “We don't think Americans are going to be tolerant of calls to cell phones.”

Developed by the DMA through its subsidiary Interactive Marketing Solutions, the new system will block calls to over 280 million current or future cell phone numbers. The list, derived from multiple sources, is not of cell phone numbers but of area codes and exchanges in 10,000-number blocks, said DMA executive vice president Jerry Cerasale.

The service, which costs subscribers $500 per year, includes monthly updates. It differs from the DMA's Mail Preference and Telephone Preference services in that there is no interaction with the consumer. As with MPS and TPS, use of the service is a requirement of DMA membership.

The DMA started working on the project after hearing reports of unsolicited calls to cell phones, according to Cerasale. And that may not be a moment too soon, for the states are also taking a hard look at the issue.

New Jersey recently passed a law banning cell phones by telemarketers. But the law was written so that it will remain in effect “only as long as telemarketers can distinguish between cell phones and residential lines,” said Sanscrainte, speaking at the DMA's annual fall conference. “It's over in November 2003.”

But there is no guarantee that other states will be just as reasonable. Any bills that fail to note the change in 2003 will be “out the window,” Sanscrainte continued.

The options now available for the states are to ban all telemarketing calls to cell phones or to allow people to add their cell phone numbers to a do-not-call list,” Sanscrainte said.

Cerasale acknowledged that the DMA's blocking service is an “interim solution.” Nobody is sure how it will be done, but he thinks the DMA might have to go down to 1,000-number blocks. Either way, the DMA plans to consult with the FCC, as it did on the current version of the product.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 prohibits marketing calls to cell phones by an automatic dialer. This is part of a general prohibition of calls in which the recipient pays for the call.

According to Wientzen, there has been some talk in Washington of a system in which the “receiver would not have to pay for marketing calls.”

The portability change is expected to occur in November 2003, but Wientzen is not counting on that date.

“It has already been postponed, and it wouldn't shock me if it was postponed again,” he said.