![]() The Republican National Committee, which is in favor of ringless voice mail, goes as far as to argue that prohibiting direct-to-voice-mail messages may be a violation of free speech. “Definitions of words in regulations and statutes are legal issues,” he said, “but there is certainly lots of common sense here.” “These companies are only spinning an incorrect interpretation of the regulations and the definition of the word ‘call,’” said Randall Snyder, a telecommunications engineering consultant and expert witness in more than 100 cases involving related regulations. But he said he did not believe that ringless voice mail needed to be subject to the same regulations as other calls - unless regulators find that the messages are generating complaints or being used inappropriately. He contends that telemarketers should be able to use ringless voice mail messages as long as they do so responsibly - that is, skipping over consumers on the “Do Not Call” list, identifying who is leaving the message and giving people a way to opt out. ![]() “The concept of ringless voice mail was to develop a nonnuisance form of messaging or a nonintrusive alternative to robocalls,” Mr. It was intended for businesses like hospitals, dentist’s and doctor's offices, banks, and shipping companies to reach customers, for example, and for “responsible marketing.” Josh Justice, chief executive of Stratics Networks, said its technology - which can send out 100 ringless voice mail messages a minute - had existed for 10 years and had not caused a widespread nuisance. Mahoney’s daughter had received similar messages - advertising zero-interest auto financing - and that neither he nor she had given the company consent. The company’s lawyer declined to comment. “The act of depositing a voice mail on a voice mail service without dialing a consumers’ cellular telephone line does not result in the kind of disruptions to a consumer’s life - dead air calls, calls interrupting consumers at inconvenient times or delivery charges to consumers,” All About the Message wrote. In its petition, the company argued that the law “does not impose liability for voice mail messages” when they are delivered directly to a voice mail service provider and subscribers are not charged for a call. to rule that its voice mail messages are not calls, and therefore can be delivered by automatic telephone dialing systems using an artificial or prerecorded voice. More specifically, All About the Message wants the F.C.C. But the petition was withdrawn before the commission could rule. Nearly three years ago, it received a similar petition from VoAPPs, another voice mail technology company, which wanted to allow debt collectors to reach consumers through voice mail. This is not the first time the commission has received such a request. “We read the law to possibly not apply if they are not considered calls.” “The legal question is whether the people sending the messages would be required to comply with the Do Not Call list,” Ms. All About the Message’s customers use the service to deliver messages for marketing or other purposes right to consumers.Įven consumers on the “ Do Not Call” list could potentially be bombarded by telemarketers, advocates said. That federal law among other things prohibits calling cellular phones with automated dialing and artificial or prerecorded voices without first obtaining consent - except in an emergency.Īll About the Message, the ringless voice mail provider petitioning the commission, uses technology developed by another company, Stratics Networks. The commission is collecting public comments on the issue after receiving a petition from a ringless voice mail provider that wants to avoid regulation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. “Debt collectors could potentially hijack a consumer’s voice mail with collection messages.” If unregulated, ringless voice mail messages “will likely overwhelm consumers’ voice mail systems and consumers will have no way to limit, control or stop these messages,” Margot Freeman Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center, wrote in the organization’s comment letter to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of more than a dozen consumer groups. Consumers’ voice mail boxes would be clogged with automated messages, they say, making it challenging to unearth important calls, whether they are from an elderly mother’s nursing home or a child’s school. ![]() But consumer advocates, technology experts, people who have been inundated with these calls and the lawyers representing them say such an exemption would open the floodgates.
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