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Did the FCC's New Order Get the Wrong-Number Problem Right

Businesses have tried for years at great expense to design systems that detect when a customer or prospect has changed a cellular number, but there is no public cellular telephone number directory. And data vendors that purport to sell information identifying people that are “associated” with cellular numbers are only making educated guesses. Wrong-number class action cases continue to be filed at a rapid pace and can strike fear into the hearts of businesses like credit card issuers that may make tens of millions of calls in a year.

To address this, the Federal Communications Commission in December 2018 issued a report and adopted new rules establishing a single comprehensive database with assignment information provided by telephone carriers, which will advise when a telephone number has been disconnected and is eligible for reassignment. To encourage callers to use the database, the FCC announced a safe harbor from liability for calls to reassigned numbers caused by database error.

This webinar discussed the wrong-number problem and whether the FCC’s new database will provide businesses with the information they need to help prevent wrong-number calls.

Speakers included Peggy Daley and David Kalat from BRG; Debra Bernard, a partner at Perkins Coie; and Ryan Thurman, director of Sales and Marketing at Contact Center Compliance.