The FCC has adopted a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) to address the issue of robocalls to reassigned phone numbers. When a consumer gets a new phone number previously assigned to another consumer who had consented to receive automated calls, businesses and other callers often do not learn of the reassignment right away. Their unawareness can subject the recipient of the reassigned number to unwanted calls and deprive the previous number holder of expected calls. To remedy this problem, the Commission is seeking comment on the idea of establishing a comprehensive database of reassigned numbers that can help businesses and other robocallers, such as schools, avoid inadvertently calling a number that is no longer used by the consenting consumer. The FCC is also requesting feedback on whether voice service providers should report number reassignments and how that data should be managed and used. Comments on the NOI are due by August 28, 2017, and reply comments are due by September 26, 2017.
