So the Reassigned Number Database (RND) has been active for a few months now and adoption has been…. a bit slow to take off.

One significant factor in callers declining to make use of the RND had been the limited timeframes of data available to the administrator with respect to reassignments.

Specifically, unless both the “last good” date and the date of reassignment was later than October 15, 2021 the Administrator was returning “no data” records. This resulting in a huge amount of “no data” reports being sent in response to scrub requests. And since “no data” means “no safeharbor” callers were scratching their heads in terms of the usefulness of the RND.

Well it turns out that more data was available to the Administrator that it was being permitted to use based on earlier Commission orders, an issue that the FCC just cleared up via a Public Notice issued last week.

Specifically, the Administrator actually has reassigned number data from January 27, 2021 forward. That data was not supplied until October 15, 2021, however. But in crafting the response paradigm the FCC used the October 15, 2021 date instead of the January 27, 2021 date. As the Public Notice puts it:

“Because the Bureau initially set the relevant dates based on when providers report disconnects rather than when they began maintaining that data, the date of consent must be on or after October 15, 2021 to guarantee a “yes” or “no” response from the database. If the queried telephone number is not in the database and the date of consent is between January 27, 2021 (the date when all service providers had to maintain disconnection data) and October 15, 2021 (the date when all service providers had to report permanent disconnections to the Reassigned Numbers Database Administrator), the database will return a “no data” response—even though the database contains actionable information regarding whether the number has in fact been disconnected.”

By its Public Notice the FCC advised that it was CHANGING the Administrator’s response to allow it to supply a “yes” or “no” so long as the disconnect and the “last good” date occurred after January 27, 2021 instead of October 15, 2021. Here’s the key language:

• The Reassigned Numbers Database will return a value of “yes” if the queried number is contained in the database and the date provided in the query is the same as or before the permanent disconnect date for that number in the Reassigned Numbers Database (i.e., the number has been permanently disconnected on or after the date that the caller enters into its query). Callers will not be eligible for the safe harbor described in section 64.1200(m) of the Commission’s rules for calling any number for which the Reassigned Numbers Database returns a value of “yes.”

• The Reassigned Numbers Database will return a value of “no” if the queried number is in the database and the date the caller provides in its query is after the permanent disconnect date contained in the database, or if the number is not in the database and the date the caller provides is on or after January 27, 2021, the date all service providers were required to maintain records of permanently disconnected numbers (i.e., the number has not been permanently disconnected after the date the caller enters into its query). Callers may be eligible for the safe harbor described in section 64.1200(m) of the Commission’s rules for calling a number for which the Reassigned Numbers Database returns a value of “no.”

• The Reassigned Numbers Database will return a value of “no data” if the queried number and a permanent disconnect date are not contained in the database and the date provided in the query is before January 27, 2021, the date all service providers were required to maintain records of permanently disconnected numbers (i.e., the database does not contain either the date or number data queried by the caller). Callers will not be eligible for the safe harbor described in section 64.1200(m) of the Commission’s rules for calling any number for which the Reassigned Numbers Database returns a value of “no data.”

This change means that callers who have a “last good” date after January 27, 2021 should be able to rely on the RND and not merely receive a “no data” record. That’s a big (and very helpful) change.

Obviously anyone making outbound calls to aged leads or a servicing portfolio should be making copious use of the RND. Failing to do so may open the door to arguments that calling recycled numbers was a “willful” act.

On the other hand, even the new changes to the Administrator’s reporting guidance do not expand the RND beyond its fairly narrow scope—fat fingered and other “wrong” numbers that are not the result of recycled numbers will not be prevented by RND usage. Make sure to fully understand the legal landscape—and seek counsel–before deploying any technology governed by the TCPA folks.