Florida Senate - 2018                              CS for SB 962
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Commerce and Tourism; and Senator Grimsley
       
       
       
       
       
       577-01937-18                                           2018962c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to telephone solicitation; creating s.
    3         365.176, F.S.; providing a short title; defining
    4         terms; authorizing telecommunication providers to
    5         block certain calls; prohibiting the blocking of
    6         certain calls; authorizing telecommunication providers
    7         to rely upon caller identification service information
    8         to determine originating numbers for the purpose of
    9         blocking such calls; providing an effective date.
   10          
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Section 365.176, Florida Statutes, is created to
   14  read:
   15         365.176 Florida Call-Blocking Act.—
   16         (1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Call-Blocking
   17  Act.”
   18         (2) As used in this section, the term:
   19         (a) “Caller identification service” means a service that
   20  allows a telephone subscriber to have the telephone number and,
   21  if available, the name of the calling party transmitted
   22  contemporaneously with the telephone call and displayed on a
   23  device in or connected to the subscriber’s telephone.
   24         (b) “Pooling administrator” means the Thousands-Block
   25  Pooling Administrator as identified in 47 C.F.R. s. 52.20.
   26         (c) “Provider” means a telecommunications company that
   27  provides voice communications services to customers in this
   28  state.
   29         (3) Consistent with authorization provided by federal law
   30  and rules of the Federal Communications Commission or its
   31  successors, providers operating in this state may block calls in
   32  the following manner:
   33         (a) Providers may block a voice call when the subscriber to
   34  which the originating number is assigned has requested that
   35  calls purporting to originate from that number be blocked
   36  because the number is used for inbound calls only.
   37         (b) Providers may block calls originating from the
   38  following numbers:
   39         1. A number that is not a valid North American Numbering
   40  Plan number;
   41         2. A valid North American Numbering Plan number that is not
   42  allocated to a provider by the North American Numbering Plan
   43  Administrator or the pooling administrator; and
   44         3. A valid North American Numbering Plan number that is
   45  allocated to a provider by the North American Numbering Plan
   46  Administrator or pooling administrator, but is unused, so long
   47  as the provider blocking the calls is the allocatee of the
   48  number and confirms that the number is unused or has obtained
   49  verification from the allocatee that the number is unused at the
   50  time of the blocking.
   51  
   52  Providers may not block a voice call pursuant to subparagraph 1.
   53  or subparagraph 2. if the call is an emergency call placed to
   54  911.
   55         (4) For purposes of blocking calls from certain originating
   56  numbers as authorized in this section, a provider may rely on
   57  caller identification service information to determine the
   58  originating number.
   59         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.
   60