iQuick one for you today, in the saga (it qualifies as a saga in my book) of the FCC’s ongoing efforts to close the lead gen loophole another part of the Targeting and Eliminating Unlawful Text Messages was published today. The latest piece of the puzzle is the effective date, September 3, 2024, and publication of the Text Blocking Report and Order adding to section § 64.1200 Delivery Restrictions in the Federal Registry “requiring all mobile wireless providers to block certain text messages that are highly likely to be illegal”.
The new rules read as follows:
(p) A mobile wireless provider must block a text message purporting to originate from a North American Numbering Plan number on a reasonable do-not-originate list. A list so limited in scope that it leaves out obvious North American Numbering Plan numbers that could be included with little effort may be deemed unreasonable. The do-not-originate list may include only:
(1) North American Numbering Plan Numbers for which the subscriber to the number has requested that texts purporting to originate from that number be blocked;
(2) North American Numbering Plan numbers that are not valid;
(3) Valid North American Numbering Plan numbers that are not allocated to a provider by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator; and
(4) Valid North American Numbering Plan numbers that are allocated to a provider by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator, but are unused, so long as the provider blocking the message is the allocatee of the number and confirms that the number is unused or has obtained verification from the allocatee that the number is unused at the time of blocking.
While the scope of what can be added to a reasonable DNO seems pretty straightforward forward it will be inevitable that legitimate communication will be swept up in this at some point, not to worry, the FCC also requires wireless providers to maintain a point of contact where wrongly blocked texts can be “quickly remedied”. Not sure what that means but I can only imagine we will soon find out.
