FCC mobile spam rule doesn't cover some SMS

Although the amount of SMS spam is low in the U.S. compared to Japan and some countries in Europe, Farros questioned if the TCPA rules protect U.S. mobile phone users against spam. One in every two mobile phone users received a piece of spam in 2003, estimates analyst Michael Sampson of Ferris Research Inc. Ferris Research expects the amount of mobile-phone spam in the U.S. to rise to one message per every mobile phone user in 2004, and three pieces of spam per mobile phone user in 2005, Sampson said.

There are currently 167.6 million mobile phone service subscribers in the U.S., according to Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA). In December 2003, 21 billion text messages were sent to mobile phones in the U.S., although many of those messages were not commercial spam, according to CTIA.

"If they're telling us the protections are clearly in place, then where are the protections?" said Farros, whose company sells software that allows commercial messages to be sent to mobile phones and other devices, if the customer opts in to receive messages. "If (mobile-phone spam) is already covered, then it's not working."

But CTIA disagrees, with spokeswoman Erin McGee saying the association believes enough spam safeguards are in place for mobile-phone users. Mobile-phone carriers have sued spammers and taken other measures, such as installing spam-blocking software on their networks.

"With CAN-SPAM, along with the TCPA, along with what wireless carriers are already doing, there's a good level of protection for customers," McGee said.