Wisconsin Residents Can Add Cellular Numbers to Do-Not-Call Lists

The widely utilized and extremely popular Wisconsin based Do Not Call list is expanding to include cell mobile phone numbers, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle added the inclusion of cell phone numbers into the budget repair bill. As of June 5, mobile users have until the end of August to put all cell numbers onto the Do Not Call list, which will be sent to telemarketers in October.

The addition is in direct response to consumer complaints that receiving telemarketing calls on their cell phones was consistently eating up minutes for which they had to pay. Land line Do Not Call lists have been available for a while, and those calls do not even cost any extra money.

Any cell phone number, no matter what the area code, can sign up on the new Do Not Call list – however, users must include a Wisconsin based ZIP code.

Right now, there are 1.1 million land line telephone numbers listed on the state’s current Do Not Call list. As of June 2007, there were 3.6 million cell phone users, and while it is unknown yet how many of that number will sign their mobile numbers up on the new list, residents interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are already vowing to sign up every cell phone within their families.

There is already a federal law restricting telemarketers from calling mobile phones. Furthermore, cell phone numbers can currently be added to the government’s list. A spokesperson for the governor of Wisconsin maintains that there is still a need for Wisconsin to have its own cell friendly Do Not Call list. The penalties for violating each law are the same – $100 per call – but backers of the Wisconsin bill says their list will prove to be better as they intend to impose stiffer penalties and to enforce the fines.

(June 6, 2008)