Letter to the Hon. Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission - Urging FCC to Not Allow Telemarketers to Use Ringless Voice Mail Technology

Letter

Dear Chairman Pai,

I write today to strongly oppose the Commission's open petition to exempt ringless voicemails from key consumer protections established by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Ringless voicemail technology allows callers to deposit a voicemail on a consumer's phone without the phone ever ringing. Even though these voicemails may be quieter than what we traditionally think of as cellphone spam, they are no less intrusive or annoying to consumers.

The TCPA was designed to prevent consumers from being plagued by unwanted and unsolicited calls. While the statute was an important and significant step forward, if you ask any consumer today, they will tell you current law is absolutely inadequate to keep them from being harassed and irritated by spam on their cellphones. In fact, in May of 2017 alone, consumers received 2.6 billion robocalls, according to YouMail.

Ringless voicemail would be yet another way for consumers to feel that their phones are not their own. Unsolicited, spam robocall voicemails could flood mailboxes, clogging out legitimate messages.

As policymakers, what we should be doing is finding ways to make current law stronger and tighter; the government should not begin to contemplate allowing new and different ways for consumers to be overwhelmed by unwanted messages.

Accordingly, I urge you to swiftly reject the ringless voicemail petition. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

US Senator

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