Can you hear me now? Stop calling!(TRENDS & TRANSITIONS)

• Author: Kirsch, Cassandra

In response to a growing number of consumer complaints about unsolicited and unwanted marketing calls, Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in 1991, restricting the use of automatic dialing and prerecorded voice messages. Over the next decade, state legislatures also enacted do-not-call lists. Yet, between 1991 and 2002, these marketing calls increased nearly 600 percent, which some attribute to new telemarketing technologies and lower long-distance rates.

Congress responded again in 2003 with its own do-not-call law similar to the ones already passed in many states at the time. The national list makes it illegal for commercial telemarketers to call registered personal phone numbers, and unlike some states, includes cell phones. The law exempts political organizations, polling business, charities and companies with an existing business relationship with the phone number's owner. Federal rules require telemarketers to search the list every 31 days for added numbers.

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Many states integrated their lists and laws with the national ones, but since the federal law does not preempt state laws, telemarketers must adhere to both. State laws often to renew their registrations every few years, and some restrict more of solicitation technology than does the federal law.

Still, calls have continued to increase, and complaints to the Federal Trade Commission reached a high of more than 2 million in 2011.

Advances in technology also have brought unwelcome text messages to cell phones, eating up minutes for those with limited plans, and gaining the attention of state legislators. California, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin now ban unsolicited text messages. Missouri lawmakers introduced similar legislation this year.

Political calls are excluded from the FTC definition of telemarketing, and during this presidential election season, voters have...