Groups Call For FCC Action In Text Disputes
Public interest groups renewed their calls Wednesday for the FCC to clarify rules related to text messaging and short codes, saying a new dispute between Sprint and Catholic Relief Services over mobile giving for Haiti highlights the need for some legal clarity.
The issue relates to a dispute between Sprint and CRS over the charity's mobile-texting campaign related to Haiti. Instead of making the standard $5 or $10 donation text donation, CRS set up a system where prospective donors, when they send a text to donate, would be given the option of being connected to a CRS call center, where the donor might be persuaded to give a bigger donation, volunteer or make some other connection with the charity. The firm running the campaign for CRS, Mobile Commons, said it was told through a short-code aggregator called OpenMarket last month that Sprint is demanding that the program be shut down within 40 days or Sprint would block access to the short code it had set up for the CRS campaign.
Sprint argues that it has given Mobile Commons 45-60 days to sign a standard agreement with Sprint, which it requires of all groups that operate mobile-texting charity donation campaigns, according to Sprint spokeswoman Crystal Davis. She said the standard agreements are needed so firms like Mobile Commons can ensure the charities they work with are legitimate and provide Sprint with information it needs when customers call with questions related to the mobile-texting campaigns.
"We hope that a standard agreement can be made with the mobile giving aggregator to make certain that it verifies every 501c3 organization and mobile giving campaign it manages to ensure a secure and seamless mobile giving experience for our customers," Davis said. If an agreement is not reached with Mobile Commons in that time, Sprint will "continue to work [with] them to make sure this mobile campaign is accessible to our customers," she added.
Free Press, Public Knowledge and the Media Access Project, however, say the dispute highlights the need for FCC intervention on text messaging and short codes, which are shortened numbers used to text a certain group. Free Press and Public Knowledge filed a petition with the FCC in 2007 after Verizon declined the abortion rights group NARAL's request for a short code for text messaging with the group's members.
"The Commission has to put an end to the arbitrary treatment of text messaging from carriers and to require carriers to deal fairly and consistently with those companies offering exciting and innovative services," Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said in a statement. "If the commission doesn't act, the excitement and innovation will disappear in short order."
Sprint said in a 2008 brief that if the FCC were to agree to the two groups' petition it "would undermine highly effective industry guidelines and carrier practices that are designed to and, in practice, do protect consumers from unwanted or unsolicited spam, unexpected charges, and potentially damaging programs, as well as misleading, fraudulent and illegal content."
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