Finally, a “no call” list for Mississippi cell phones

Cell phones in Mississippi may be added to the “No Call List as of Friday, July  1, 2016. The Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) has made it official.

North District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, Central District Commissioner Cecil Brown and Southern District Commissioner Sam Britton officially announced that Mississippi’s No Call List now covers cell phones. Now, solicitation calls and text messages will be subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission. Prior to July 1, 2016, only landlines were eligible to be on the No Call list in Mississippi

Thomas Adams, chief of staff for the Northern District Office of the PSC, PSC Investigator Scott Edwards, and PSC Investigator Orlando Ivy were available Friday morning in person to add cell phone users to the No Call list.

“After 8 years of advocating for cell phone numbers to be included on the No Call list, to say I have been looking forward to this day would be an understatement. I would like to thank the Mississippi legislature for changing the law to add the cell phones that so many now use as their primary contact number,” said North District Commissioner Presley, who is chairman of the PSC.

The No Call program began in July of 2003, and by law prohibits those attempting to sell consumer goods and services by telephone from calling telephone numbers that appear on the “No Call List.” The program is administered by the Public Service Commission and is designed to reduce the number of telemarketing calls subscribers receive. It will not eliminate all telemarketing calls.

Presley, Brown and Britton made the announcement in a joint press conference Friday morning at Barnes Crossing Mall in Tupelo. PSC enforcement personnel were available to add people in the mall to the No Call list in person.

Mississippians who wish to add their cellular telephone numbers to the No Call list should contact the PSC at 1-800-356-6428 or online at www. psc.state.ms.us/nocall. It takes sixty days for the No Call order to take effect, so cell phone users who add their phones to the No Call list now would go into effect in September.

Because some nuisance calls are made from outside the United States, enforcement is sometimes difficult, but the PSC efforts to stop nuisance calls from outside the country have often been successful.

Union County residents will also have the opportunity to add their cell phone to the No Call list at the Union County Circuit Clerk’s office Friday, July 15, from 10 a .m. to 1 p.m.