I am constantly amazed that just because an FCC rule is passed that people think that marketing efforts will be curtailed based on some rules to prohibit information sharing between partners.
Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of direct marketing knows that consumer profiling can be done with cross tabbing multiple data sources from available customer information to build target lists.
The way around this is too obvious. With Sprint/Nextel working with the cable companies on a new venture all they need to do is hire the MSO’s telemarketing teams to call their customers and offer them the new service. Sprint can pay them a bounty. Sprint can pay the MSO’s for an insert called a bill stuffer and Sprint can run TV spots on the cable networks.
All of that can be treated as advertising with credits earned by the MSO’s for each activation. All of this said, the idea of limiting just where your information can go is very much needed. For me I’d like to see the do not call list expanded to include the political campaigns too.