Nixon seeks to add business and cell numbers to No-Call-List

ST. LOUIS -- Businesses and cell phone users could add their telephone numbers to Missouri's No-Call list under a proposal announced Friday by Attorney General Jay Nixon and state Sen. Steve Stoll, D-Festus.

The current law allows only residential phone numbers. More than half of Missouri's households -- 1.5 million -- are on the state registry. An additional 265 households signed up Thursday.

"Imagine you're a doctor on call, waiting to hear from a patient. Your cell phone rings and someone wants to sell you siding," Nixon said. "Or you're a contractor waiting on a bid and someone calls to sell you something.

"It's annoying and wrong and I plan to do something about it."

Nixon said telemarketers have entered the new arena of wireless and business phone numbers to sell their products. The market has become more appealing to telemarketers as some consumers rely exclusively on cell phones, he said.

"If you don't want to be bothered at home, you certainly don't have time for wasteful phone calls at work or on your cell phone," Nixon said.

Stoll said he will file a bill Tuesday in the Senate that adds wireless and business phone numbers to the state's No-Call list. Hewas confident it will pass.

"If a telemarketer calls you at home, you've lost time," Stoll said. "If they call you at work, you've lost time and money."

Nixon said a similar bill will be filed in the House. It is sponsored by Reps. D.J. Davis, D-Odessa, and David Pearce, R-Warrensburg.

Federal law protects cell phone users and businesses from telemarketers, but the state still needs the tools, Nixon insisted, because the state could ensure swifter enforcement.

Telemarketers calling cell phone numbers is a lot like "blast faxing" advertisements. Both cost recipients, either in paper and toner, on the one hand, or cell phone minutes in the other.

Nixon said the attorney general's No-Call enforcement unit, based in St. Louis, continues to pursue telemarketers that violate the No-Call Law. Since July 2001, the state has collected $1.08 million in fines from violators.

The attorney general has tried for years to close loopholes in the law.

Nixon said a House bill would end the exemption for phone, insurance, and credit card companies.