The FCC has issued a Public Notice seeking comments on the Technical Requirements for the Reassigned Numbers Database (RND) that it ordered to be created in 2018 in response to concerns that businesses had no way of ensuring that they were not sending text messages or making autodialed calls to numbers that were no longer assigned to their customers.  Specifically, in December 2018, the Commission adopted a Second Report and Order on Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls laying the groundwork for the creation of a single, comprehensive RND that will contain reassigned number information from each carrier that obtains telephone numbers from the North American Numbering Plan.  Marketers will be able to query the database to determine if a number that they intend to call or text has recently been disconnected and, thus, may be assigned to a new user.

To establish the RND, the Commission directed the North American Numbering Council (NANC), the FCC’s federal advisory committee on numbering issues, to develop a Technical Requirements Document.  On January 13, 2020, NANC submitted its report to the Wireline Competition Bureau and Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau for review. The NANC’s recommended Technical Requirements Document for the RND is available at this link.

The FCC’s Bureaus now seek comments from the industry, including carriers that must report reassigned numbers to the database and the marketers that will utilize the database, regarding the proposed technical requirements and qualifications potential database administrators should possess if they are selected to create and maintain the database.  Comments are due on February 24, 2020, and Reply Comments are due on March 9, 2020.

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