Telco Groups, PACE Ask FCC to Reconsider Reassigned Number Database Order

Administrator “functions.” Others also sought reconsideration of the order. In December, commissioners voted 4-0 to create a reassigned number database (RND) to help combat unwanted and illegal robocalls to people with new numbers. “Combining the databases under a single contract will not promote the Commission’s desired goals of operational and cost efficiencies; it will actually reduce efficiencies on both accounts,” said the telecom groups in docket 17-59. The groups said instead the FCC should refer the issue to the North American Numbering Council. NANC should have the flexibility “to best satisfy its overarching mandate from the Commission to ‘consider the most cost-effective way of administering the database, with the goal of minimizing costs and burdens for all users and service providers, while ensuring that it will fully serve the intended purpose,’” they said. The Professional Association for Customer Engagement said business landlines and other toll-free numbers shouldn't be included in the database. Including them would “create an unnecessary burden for Providers seeking to comply with the RND’s requirements while accomplishing nothing in achieving the Commission’s goal of protecting consumers from unwanted calls,” PACE said: Adding these numbers “needlessly increases the cost of database administration and neither businesses nor consumers are expected to query the database for such numbers.”