A technological advance expected next year could undo efforts to ban telemarketing calls to cell phones.
It could also render moot a new wireless block identifier being offered by the Direct Marketing Association.
Starting in November 2003, consumers will be able to “port their number and make it their home number,” according to Joseph W. Sanscrainte, general counsel for Call Compliance, Glen Cove, NY.
Federal regulations prohibit the making of unsolicited marketing calls to wireless numbers, according to the Direct Marketing Association. And 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 yesterday at the DMA
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