Marketing rights, Sensitive data prompts IXC feud with the feds

Can AT&T and other long-distance providers use local exchange carriers' billing, name and address information to market to prospective customers? The U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments about the issue last week and will decide if federal rules curbing such uses are fair.

The three-judge panel questioned AT&T lawyer Jules Pearlberg, who argued that the 1982 consent decree that broke up AT&T's monopoly gives interexchange carriers the right to use billing, name and address data for all equal access purposes, including marketing.

At one point, Judge David Sentelle responded, "So what? I don't understand how this argument wins your case.

Although the consent decree lets long-distance carriers use LECs' data, the FCC ruled last year that the data can only be used in marketing activities until the IXCs physically obtain equal access to the LECs' telephone switches. This access lets customers use any long-distance provider without having to dial an extra access code.

Because the switch conversion is more than 99% complete, using the data to cold-call prospective customers is "now an invasion of privacy," said Stuart Block, a lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission.

Pearlberg disputed the FCC's definition of equal access, claiming it is an ongoing process and not one that ends with the actual switch conversion. "There are more than 40 million IXC subscription [changes] a year," he said.

Block countered that about 85% of the billing, name and address information in question can be found elsewhere, including in the white pages, but the remainder consists of sensitive information such as private numbers and unlisted addresses.