(1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Call-Blocking Act.”
(2) As used in this section, the term:
(a) “Caller identification service” means a service that allows a telephone subscriber to have the telephone number and, if available, the name of the calling party transmitted contemporaneously with the telephone call and displayed on a device in or connected to the subscriber’s telephone.
(b) “Pooling administrator” means the Thousands-Block Pooling Administrator as identified in 47 C.F.R. s. 52.20.
(c) “Provider” means a telecommunications company that provides voice communications services to customers in this state.
(3) Consistent with authorization provided by federal law and rules of the Federal Communications Commission or its successors, providers operating in this state may block calls in the following manner:
(a) Providers may block a voice call when the subscriber to which the originating number is assigned has requested that calls purporting to originate from that number be blocked because the number is used for inbound calls only.
(b) Providers may block calls originating from the following numbers:
1. A number that is not a valid North American Numbering Plan number;
2. A valid North American Numbering Plan number that is not allocated to a provider by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator or the pooling administrator; and
3. A valid North American Numbering Plan number that is allocated to a provider by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator or pooling administrator, but is unused, so long as the provider blocking the calls is the allocatee of the number and confirms that the number is unused or has obtained verification from the allocatee that the number is unused at the time of the blocking.
Providers may not block a voice call pursuant to subparagraph 1. or subparagraph 2. if the call is an emergency call placed to 911.
(4) For purposes of blocking calls from certain originating numbers as authorized in this section, a provider may rely on caller identification service information to determine the originating number.
History.—s. 1, ch. 2018-70.