Dealing with Likely Cell Phone Exchange Numbers in VAN
The VAN Predictive Dialer system will not dial phone numbers that are likely to be cell phone
numbers.
Planning a phonebank using the VAN Predictive Dialer requires understanding which households have
phone numbers that can be dialed by the Predictive Dialer, which households cannot be dialed, and
deciding how to deal with households with multiple phone numbers that could fall in to both
categories.
Background
Numbers are determined to be likely cell phones based on the 3-number prefix belonging to a know cell
phone exchange. For example, the number 555-444-9876 has a prefix of 444, and all number in area
code 555 with prefix 444 come from the same exchange.
This policy started as of October 2012 after the FCC released an Enforcement Advisory regarding
dialing cell phones with an automated system.
Finding People with Likely Cell Phone Numbers
In the VAN on the Create a List Page in the Suppressions section, there is a dropdown menu with three
options that can be used to exclude, limit to, or ignore people with likely cell phones:
Include Likely Cell Phone Exchanges (default setting):
- No filtering based on phones with likely cell phone exchanges. People without
phone numbers will still show up.
Exclude Likely Cell Phone Exchanges:
- Exclude people who have one or more phone numbers, EACH of which has a likely
cell phone exchange. People without phone numbers, or people with a number that
is not from a likely cell phone exchange will be found.
Likely Cell Phone Exchanges Only:
- Include only people who have one or more phone numbers, EACH of which has a
likely cell phone exchange. (does not include people without phone numbers)
There are two common ways to use this exclusion:
1) Creating a list of voters that can be dialed in the VAN Predictive Dialer (see page 2)
2) Splitting a list into a Predictive Dialer list and Virtual Phone Bank list (see page 3)
Dealing with Likely Cell Phone Exchange numbers v1.1 2012-10-26
Option 1 – Recreate List of people dialed by the Predictive Dialer
Step 1) Load your existing list and select “Narrow People”
Step 2) Make sure to:
a) Select all Registration Statuses, and:
b) Select “Exclude Likely Cell Phone Exchange”
a) Select all Registration Statuses
b) Select
“Exclude Likely Cell Phone Exchange”
Dealing with Likely Cell Phone Exchange numbers v1.1 2012-10-26
Option 2 – Split a List for Predictive Dialer and Virtual Phone Bank calls
Create Target List
Create a list of voters you want to call and save this list. This list is is the “Target List”
Find Cell Phone Only Voters
Step 1) Load your Target List and select “Narrow People”
Step 2) Make sure to check all Registration Statuses and select “Likely Cell Phone Exchange Only”
Step 3) Save this list as “Cell Phone Only List”
Create Predictive Dialer List
Step 1) Load the Target List and select the House Hold Wizard
Step 2) Select “Remove any Person with a Phone Number in another Saved List”
Step 3) Choose the “Cell Phone Only List” just created and continue
Step 4) Save this list as the “Predictive Dialer List”
Create Virtual Phone Bank List
Step 1) Load the Target List
Step 2) Select “Remove any Person with a Phone Number in another Saved List”
Step 3) Choose the “Predictive Dialer List” just created and continue
Step 4) Narrow the list to “Phones Only”, making sure to account for Registration Status and other
suppressions
Step 5) Save this list as the “Phone Bank List”
Options that DO NOT WORK to create a Virtual Phone Bank List
The methods below do not account for households. Phone numbers will end up on both the Virtual
Phone Bank List and the Predictive Dialer List if the Target list is split using these steps.
Create Virtual Phone Bank List - Bad Option #1
Step 1) Load your list and select “Narrow People”
Step 2) Make sure to check all Registration Statuses and select “Exclude Likely Cell Phone
Exchange”:
Create Virtual Phone Bank List - Bad Option #2
Dealing with Likely Cell Phone Exchange numbers v1.1 2012-10-26
Step 1) Load your list and Select “Remove People”
Step 2) Remove people from the previously created Predictive Dialer Saved List
Dealing with Likely Cell Phone Exchange numbers v1.1 2012-10-26