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CHARLES E. SCHUMER 
NEWYOOK 
cnlnitcd ~totes ~matt 
The Honorable Ajit Pai 
Chairman 
Federal Communications Commission 
445 Twelfth Street, S.W. 
Washington D.C. 20554 
Dear Chairman Pai: 
WASHINGTON, DC 20510 
June 26, 2017 
DEMOCRATIC LEADER 
I write today to strongly oppose the Commission's open petition to exempt ringless voicemails 
from key consumer protections established by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act 
(TCPA). Ringless voicemail technology allows callers to deposit a voicemail on a consumer's 
phone without the phone ever ringing. Even though these voicemails may be quieter than what 
we traditionally think of as cell phone spam, they are no less intrusive or annoying to consumers. 
The TCP A was designed to prevent consumers from being plagued by unwanted and unsolicited 
calls. While the statute was an important and signiticant step forward, if you ask any consumer 
today, they will tell you current law is absolutely inadequate to keep them from being harassed 
and irritated by sparn on their cellphones. In fact, in May of 2017 alone, consumers received 2.6 
billion robocalls, according to YouMail. 
Ringless voicemail would be yet another way for consumers to feel that their phones are not their 
own. Unsolicited, spam robocall voicernails could flood mailboxes, clogging out legitimate 
messages. 
As policymakers, what we should be doing is finding ways to make current law stronger and 
tighter; the government should not begin to contemplate allowing new and different ways for 
consumers to be overwhelmed by unwanted messages. 
Accordingly, I urge you to swiftly reject the ringless voicemail petition. Thank you for your 
attention to this important matter. 
s(U_u_ 
Charles E. Schumer 
United States Senator