Voice service providers must report subscribers’ permanent disconnections starting April 15.
2/8/2021 9:00
An April 15 compliance date is in place as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 rule to create a reassigned numbers database.
The reassigned numbers database enables callers to verify the status of a phone number and helps protect consumers with reassigned numbers from receiving unwanted calls, ACA International previously reported.
Since July 27, 2020, voice service providers are required to maintain records of when each number was permanently disconnected. They must also age telephone numbers for at least 45 days after disconnection and before reassignment.
Small business voice service providers had an additional six months, i.e., until Jan. 27, 2021, to comply with the record maintenance rule, ACA previously reported.
The latest compliance date means voice service providers must report permanent disconnection of their subscribers starting April 15, 2021, and on the 15th day of the month going forward, according to a news release from the FCC.
“The report must contain data for numbers permanently disconnected that were not submitted in the service provider’s prior reports,” the FCC reports. “Notwithstanding the foregoing, small service providers (those providers with 100,000 or fewer domestic retail subscriber lines) have six additional months (until Oct. 15, 2021) to begin reporting this information to the Reassigned Numbers Database Administrator.”
ACA filed comments in 2020 outlining issues the FCC should consider when implementing the database. ACA also continues to advocate on behalf of members to ensure the database is a helpful tool and does not create cost burdens.
Members are invited to join the next ACA Huddle at 11 a.m. CST Feb. 10, with David Kaminski, partner at Carlson & Messer LLP, and Leah Dempsey, ACA’s vice president and senior counsel of federal advocacy. They will review the FCC’s Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act orders concerning TCPA exemptions for prerecorded calls to landlines and call blocking released in December 2020.
Members can read more about the upcoming ACA Huddle webinars this month here.