Ringless voicemail spam won’t be exempt from anti-robocall rules

Enlarge / The FCC was asked to decide whether this ringless voicemail technology should be subject to anti-robocall rules. (credit: Stratics Networks)

A petition to exempt ringless voicemails from anti-robocall rules has been withdrawn after heavy opposition.

In March, a marketing company called All About the Message petitioned the Federal Communications Commission for a ruling that would prevent anti-robocall rules from applying to ringless voicemails. But the company withdrew its petition without explanation in a letter to the FCC last week, even though the commission hadn't yet ruled on the matter.

As the name suggests, a ringless voicemail is the delivery of a voice message to a voicemail box without ringing the recipient's phone. The now-withdrawn petition asked the FCC to declare that this type of message does not count as a "call" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which prohibits non-emergency calls made with auto-dialers, artificial voices, or prerecorded voices without the "prior express consent of the called party."