Coming Soon To Your Cellphone: Annoying Robo-Calls?

You’re in an important meeting with your boss and your cell phone rings. You answer it, thinking it could be urgent — and you hear a computerized voice hounding you about your credit card balance.

This kind of automated “robo-call” to a cell phone is illegal now, but that could be about to change. Bill collectors, the Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups want to lift the ban on robo-calls to cell phones — and there is a bill in Congress to do just that. Although telemarketers will still be banned, any company you have given your cell phone number to could use automated dialers to make “informational” calls to you — whether you want the information or not. And they could keep using your number for years — long after you have stopped doing business with them. Consumer groups and cell-phone users are pushing back, trying to keep cell phones off-limits from spam phone calls, but they will have a hard fight ahead of them.     Full Read