Unlike previous anti-telemarketing do-not-call lists, the proposed new FCC register is limited to public safety answering point (PSAP) numbers, the service in the US that matches callers to the emergency service that they require.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) already forbids any form of automated dialling to any emergency telephone line, but Howard Fienberg, the MRA’s director of government affairs, said that there is currently no reliable listing of emergency lines.

“The PSAP registry could help prevent researchers from inadvertently calling emergency lines with their autodiallers and violating the law,” he says. “We support the new registry and will work with the FCC to make it functional, efficient and affordable.”