Wireless Carriers Make Case for TCPA Exemption for Messages to Subscribers
CTIA and the major wireless carriers urged the FCC to clarify that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act doesn’t apply to robocalls and robotexts from wireless service providers to their subscribers, in reply comments posted Monday in docket 02-278. Consumer and public interest groups argue that providers shouldn’t receive special treatment (see 2404050044). Commissioners approved a Further NPRM in February seeking comment on the wireless provider exemption (see 2402160048).
Providers have benefited from an exemption since 1992, CTIA said. “The record demonstrates that consumers want and benefit from the messages that wireless providers send,” the group said. CTIA noted that Congress has never felt the need to override the FCC policy. “Even if the Commission had authority to amend the TCPA’s framework, good policy dictates that it should not,” CTIA said.
CTIA cited several benefits of the exemption. For example, it said consumers say they want notices about roaming charges, account security, service disruptions and usage limits. “Consumers expect and rely on communications from their wireless providers about their service,” CTIA said: Carriers are also “wary of message fatigue and carefully calibrate the number of messages they send pursuant to the framework.”
Verizon slammed a filing in the initial comment round led by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), which argued for eliminating the exemption. Those comments “mischaracterize the Commission’s basis for recognizing the exception, do not address Verizon’s explication of the statutory support for it, and do not adequately explain how to care for the harms that consumers would suffer if wireless providers cannot efficiently communicate with them through free calls and texts,” Verizon said.
The statute and legislative history “demonstrate that wireless carrier communications with subscribers are outside the scope of the TCPA,” T-Mobile said. It added that messages it sends include "up-to-date information about account security, service availability (including service interruptions), required Lifeline and/or Affordable Connectivity Program information, billing, and T-Mobile services.” These are delivered “at no charge to subscribers,” T-Mobile added.
The FNPRM “proposes to fundamentally alter the TCPA and the Commission’s past interpretation that the communications of wireless providers to their customers at no charge is not subject to the TCPA,” said AT&T.
The American Bankers Association and other financial associations opposed a request from NCLC about which the FCC also sought comment, requiring an automated “opt-out mechanism” on every call containing an artificial or prerecorded voice message. Imposing that requirement “would impair the ability of consumers to receive important information from the companies with which they do business, significantly detract from the customer experience, and … provide little, if any, benefit to consumers,” the associations said. The filing was also signed by ACA International, the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, the American Financial Services Association, America’s Credit Unions, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Council of Higher Education Resources and the Student Loan Servicing Alliance.
The Edison Electric Institute also said the FCC should reject NCLC’s request. Requiring an opt-out mechanism “is overbroad, unnecessary, lacking support to establish that customers are unable to stop calls from electric companies, and would delay providing valuable information to consumers, to the significant detriment of customer experience,” EEI said.