# Telemarketing to cell phones **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765 "2004-12-08T16:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765/1 "2004-12-08T16:47:21Z")
This is not the standard question on whether it is legal to telemarket to cell phones! I know you can’t, but I have a question on the relevant law, [47 USC 227](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000227----000-.html). It says, in part: > [@](#): > > It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States— > (A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any **automatic telephone dialing system** or an artificial or prerecorded voice— > (iii) to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call; Notice the section I bolded. Does this mean you can telemarket cell phones if you dial the numbers by hand? Isn’t that a really big loophole that someone should be exploiting? ---
**Author:** ![SavageNarce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765/2 "2004-12-09T18:33:25Z")
Don’t forget item iii - even if you dial by hand, you can’t do it if the cellphone owner has to pay for the call. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765/3 "2004-12-09T19:22:02Z")
> [@SavageNarce](#): > > Don’t forget item iii - even if you dial by hand, you can’t do it if the cellphone owner has to pay for the call. Yep, and since most cell phone users have to pay for incoming calls and there isn’t a reliable way to tell what the user’s pay plan is, telemarketers don’t bother with cell phones. Haj ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765/4 "2004-12-09T19:31:54Z")
> [@SavageNarce](#): > > Don’t forget item iii - even if you dial by hand, you can’t do it if the cellphone owner has to pay for the call. That’s not the way I read this. I read it to say you can’t make the call if you use and automatic dialer AND you are calling to a cell phone where they have to pay for the call. If you want to read iii separately, it would seem to outlaw any call to a cell phone so cell phones woudl only be useful for outgoing calls. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765/5 "2004-12-09T22:52:16Z")
Yeah, sorry about that. I condensed the cite and took out the indenting. If you follow the link, you can see that iii is under A, along with i and ii, and it only makes sense if it’s an additional clause. ---
**Author:** ![SavageNarce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/telemarketing-to-cell-phones/278765/6 "2004-12-11T03:40:25Z")
A major part of the question is how you get the phone number you are calling. If you are punching in digits manually,chosen at random or looked up in the phone book, you may be OK. But if you use a computer-generated list of numbers, a random number generator, or even a web-based number lookup, you may fall under the definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system”: > [@](#): > > The term “automatic telephone dialing system” means equipment which has the capacity— > (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator