threatens to disrupt the continuity of legitimate business relationships and deny consumers access
to valuable communications from businesses that they know and trust.
For example, Cox newspapers routinely contact their subscribers to remind them when
subscriptions are due for renewal to avoid a disruption in delivery. Similarly, the newspapers
contact their subscribers when they fa ll behind in their payments to inquire as to whether those
customers still wish to receive a paper and determine if a more flexible billing option or a
different delivery schedule or frequency would better suit the customers' needs. Sales and
customer service discussions are commingled in these retention calls, which plainly benefit
consumers and are vital to Cox newspapers' ability to operate in an industry with an annual
churn rate of almost 60 percent.
Similarly, Cox cable television systems use telemarketing campaigns to contact their
customers when new services have become available in their neighborhoods and to apprise them
of free programming previews or special promotional offers and discounts. These call generally
are welcomed by Cox's customers and very rarely result in do not call requests. For example,
Cox's cable television system in Omaha, Nebraska, contacts an average of 2,000 customer
households each month through outbound telemarketing calls. On average, fewer than five of
these custome rs ask to be placed on Cox's do not call list just one quarter of one percent of all
customers called. Cox's Hampton Roads system contacts approximately 75,000 customer
households on a monthly basis. On average, these contacts elicit only between 75 to 100 do not
call requests, scarcely more than one tenth of one percent of the households called.
These statistics suggest that even those Cox customers who might otherwise wish to
prevent telemarketing cold calls to their homes are, nevertheless, receptive to occasional calls
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