On Point with Tom Ashbrook
November 28, 2011
Telemarketing On Your Cell Phone?
Congress may soon open up your cell phone to robocalls. Will this put a telemarketing hell in your pocket?
Ever since cell phones took off in the early 1990s, they've lived in a special, protected zone - by law. Tele-marketers might hound you on your land line at home, but your cell phone was off-limits. Sacred. No pesky tele-marketing calls ringing in the middle of your morning run, your drive to work, your romantic night out.
But as more and more Americans drop land lines and move to cell phones only, American business is desperate to get access to the phone in your pocket. A bill before Congress would open the door.
This hour On Point: the push to robo-dial your cell phone.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Brendan Sasso, covers technology and telecommunications for the congressional journal "The Hill."
Delicia Reynolds Hand, Legislative Director for the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
John Abell, New York City Bureau Chief for Wired.
Scott Zoeller, Attorney General for the state of Indiana.
Howard Waltzman, A partner at law firm Meyer Brown. He heads a multi-industry coalition of 13-14 different trade associations lobbying for this bill.