On August 25, 2025, the FCC abruptly blocked thousands of inbound ringless voicemails,
halting campaigns and costing marketers thousands—if not millions—of dollars. Over 1,200
voice service providers were cut off and blacklisted from the national telecom network for
non-compliance.
If your call center was using a blacklisted provider, your lines went dead without any warning.
The FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD) is essentially the whitelist of who is allowed
to send calls and voicemail traffic across U.S. networks. On August 25, the FCC removed
more than a thousand providers who were not following compliance rules.
When a provider is removed from that database, calls do not just slow down—they never
reach the consumer. The traffic is blocked upstream before it ever hits a phone.
For call centers running ringless voicemail drops, that is the equivalent of pulling the power
cord out mid-campaign.
How This Affected MCA
No industry was hit harder than Merchant Cash Advance. MCA teams depend on outbound
marketing that includes texting, dialing, and ringless voicemail (RVM). Ringless voicemails
have been a quiet weapon for years. Many teams drop hundreds of thousands of voicemails
daily.
However, on August 25, if a provider was cut, those voicemails were not delivered—and the
marketing spend were lost.
What This Means for MCA
The FCC has already ruled that ringless voicemails count as calls under the TCPA. That
means companies must have prior express consent before dropping a message.
When this ruling is combined with the August 25 blacklisting, the game has become much
more difficult. If a vendor is not registered in the RMD, marketing campaigns are at serious
risk.
Clients have reported that deliverability is down, costs are up, and speed-to-lead is
significantly reduced. Outbound marketing still works, but only for those who are compliant.
What Is the Answer?
Make sure the carrier you are using is RMD-certified. If they cannot provide proof, find another
provider—doing so may save thousands of dollars.
Explore other channels to market, such as dialing, texting, and email. The FCC has not killed
outbound marketing—it has only eliminated it for non-compliant marketers who ignored the
warnings.