Reassigned Numbers Database: How the FCC RND Works

The Reassigned Numbers Database (RND) is the FCC’s official system for checking whether a US phone number has been permanently disconnected since the last time you reached its owner. It lives at reassigned.us. It is not free or public, and it is not a list you can download. You register, prepay for queries, and submit numbers with a date. It returns Yes, No or No Data. Used correctly, a “No” answer can protect you from TCPA liability. Used carelessly, it protects you from nothing.

This guide covers how the RND works, how to get access, what it costs, how to use it at volume, and where compliance teams get burned.

TL;DR

• The FCC’s RND covers geographic and toll-free numbers that were permanently disconnected. Providers report monthly.
• It is a paid, prepaid subscription. There is no public or free list of disconnected US numbers.
• You send a number plus a “last known contact date.” The answer is Yes, No or No Data.
• The safe harbor needs prior consent, a documented check, and an incorrect “No.” It does not cover a “Yes” you ignored.
• An RND check does not replace honoring opt-outs. Consent revocation is a separate duty.

Table of Contents

• What the Reassigned Numbers Database is
• What a query returns
• How the TCPA safe harbor works
• Getting access: registration and cost
• Querying at volume
• Checking the RND is not the same as honoring consent
• Where compliance teams slip
• How many numbers are we talking about?
• Our perspective: make the check part of the dial path
• What to look for in a dialer or CRM
• Compliance built into the dialer
• FAQ
• Sources

What the Reassigned Numbers Database is

People change numbers. Carriers recycle them. A number you collected consent on two years ago may now belong to a stranger. Call or text that stranger with an autodialer and you can face a TCPA claim, even though you did everything right at the time.

The FCC calls this the “doctor’s office” problem. Chairman Pai’s statement on the 2018 order describes a doctor’s office calling what it believes is a patient’s number, and reaching someone else. The Commission adopted the rules to create the database in December 2018, and it opened for commercial use on November 1, 2021.

The RND holds permanently disconnected US geographic and toll-free numbers, along with the date of disconnection. Per the FCC, it is updated monthly: providers report by the 15th and the administrator refreshes the system by the 17th. Providers also observe a minimum 45-day aging period before a disconnected number can go to a new customer.

That last point matters. A number sitting in the database as disconnected is, for a short window, not yet in someone else’s hands. The check is most valuable for numbers that have already been recycled.

What a query returns

You submit a phone number and a date. The system answers one of three ways, per the FCC’s description:

A “No Data” is not a green light. It means the RND cannot speak to that number. Build a rule for it: re-verify consent, confirm through a recent live contact, or hold the number out of automated dialing.

The date you submit is the whole game

The date field is the most common point of failure. Per the RND’s querying guidance, it must be the date you obtained consent, or the last date you successfully reached that consumer at that number. If you guess, or use a lead’s import date, the answer is unreliable. So is any safe harbor claim built on it.

Practical rules for the date:

1. Store a consent timestamp on every contact record at the time consent is captured.
2. Store a separate “last confirmed contact” timestamp, updated when an agent actually speaks with the person.
3. Query with the later of the two, and only if it reflects real contact with the intended recipient.
4. Never overwrite either date on bulk import or list refresh.

If your CRM cannot hold both dates per contact, fix that before you worry about the RND.

How the TCPA safe harbor works

The safe harbor is narrow. To use it, you need three things:

1. Valid prior express consent from the intended recipient.
2. A documented RND check before the call.
3. An incorrect “No” from the database: the number had actually been reassigned, but the RND said it had not.

If the RND correctly says “Yes” and you call anyway, you have lost the protection. You were on notice. The safe harbor only shields you from the database’s own errors, and only when you can show your records.

Two takeaways. First, log every query with its input date, result and timestamp. Second, wire the result into the dial decision so a “Yes” blocks the call automatically. A “Yes” sitting in a report that nobody reads is the worst outcome: you knew, and you dialed.

Getting access: registration and cost

There is no public, free database of all US phone numbers, and no official free list of disconnected numbers. The RND is the regulated mechanism, and it runs on prepaid subscriptions.

Registration steps

Per the RND querying page, registration involves corporate vetting:

1. Register your company and name a Primary Contact.
2. Name an Authorizer, a member of management who approves access.
3. Wait for approval. It can take up to seven calendar days, so do not start the day before a campaign launches.
4. Subscribe to a plan and prepay.

Using a calling partner or lead vendor

If a third party queries on your behalf, they register as a Caller Agent. Per the same page, a Caller Agent needs a valid Letter of Authorization for every client company it queries for, and those letters go to RND support before querying begins. Ask any vendor to show you its LOA arrangement for your company. Do not assume it exists.

What queries cost

The RND publishes tiered pricing. Under the pricing notice effective April 28, 2025, the entry tier is $0.008 per query, with a one-month subscription of 1,000 queries priced at $8. Longer terms and higher tiers lower the per-query rate. Check the official pricing page before budgeting, since it can change.

For most agencies, query cost is small next to a single TCPA claim. The real cost is process: registration, date discipline and logging.

Querying at volume

The web interface works for spot checks. It is a poor fit for a live call center. According to the FCC, individual queries handle up to 50 numbers, while bulk file uploads or API calls handle up to 1,000,000 numbers per batch. The RND’s own guidance points high-volume users to the API or SFTP file upload.

A workable pattern for a team dialing thousands of leads:

• Before a list loads: batch-query the whole file and flag every “Yes.”
• For aged leads: re-query before any campaign touches numbers older than your internal threshold, such as 30 or 60 days since last contact.
• Monthly: the data refreshes monthly, so a number that came back “No” in September can change by November. Re-check on a schedule, not once.
• Store results: keep the response, the query date and the input date on the contact record.

Manual spreadsheets are where this breaks. Someone forgets a column, mixes up dates, or skips a list because the campaign is urgent. Automate the query and the block, or expect gaps.

Checking the RND is not the same as honoring consent

The RND answers one question: has this number changed hands? It says nothing about whether the current owner has told you to stop.

Under the FCC’s rules on revoking consent, consumers can revoke consent in any reasonable manner, and callers must honor do-not-call and consent revocation requests in a timely way. The FCC set the effective date for these rules at April 11, 2025, with one provision delayed by a year. That provision is the requirement that revoking consent for one type of message applies to all types from that caller. Confirm the current status with your counsel.

What counts as a reasonable revocation? A “STOP” text, a key-press during a call, a reply saying “don’t contact me,” an email, or a spoken request to an agent. Our research puts the response window at 10 business days. TCPA.com’s consent guide is a useful reference for how consent and revocation interact.

The operational consequence: a clean RND result does not excuse ignoring an opt-out. Revocations must flow into one suppression list that every channel checks: dialer, SMS, email and any partner sending on your behalf. If a person says stop on a call and your agent logs it in a note field that the dialer never reads, you have a violation waiting.

Where compliance teams slip

Treating “No Data” as “No.” They are different answers. Decide your handling rule in writing.

Wrong dates. Using the lead creation date, or a date from a vendor you cannot verify, undermines the query.

One-time checks. Numbers get recycled continuously. A check at list purchase does not cover a dial six months later.

Ignoring “Yes.” The safe harbor does not apply once you are on notice.

Weak vendor controls. If you buy leads or use outside callers, their data hygiene becomes your exposure. Require proof of consent records and ask who queries the RND, under which registration. Pair that with follow-up that keeps consent fresh: lead nurturing strategies that earn a reply also refresh your last-contact date.

Skipping the registration lead time. Seven days of approval can sink a launch plan.

Assuming the RND covers everything. It covers geographic and toll-free numbers reported by participating providers. It is one control among several, alongside the National Do-Not-Call Registry, your own suppression lists and consent records.

How many numbers are we talking about?

The scale explains why recycling is a real risk. The FCC reported that as of late 2019, US carriers held over 1.6 billion numbers, with an overall assignment rate of 52.2% to end users. Numbers move constantly, and no free public file tells you which ones.

Our perspective: make the check part of the dial path

We build for regulated sales teams: insurance agencies, real estate brokerages, healthcare practices, legal intake and lead generation. The pattern we see is consistent. Teams understand the rule. They fail on execution.

The failure is rarely a missing policy. It is a gap between systems. Consent lives in one tool, the dialer in another, texting in a third, and the RND check is a task someone does “before big campaigns.” Under volume, that task gets skipped.

Our view:

• Compliance belongs in the dialing path, not beside it. A check that a human has to remember will eventually be forgotten. Consent status, DNC scrubbing, opt-outs and number-status checks should gate the call before an agent hears a ring.
• Consent data is the foundation. The RND is only as good as the dates you feed it. Capture consent timestamps and last-contact dates at the source.
• Opt-outs travel everywhere. One suppression record, honored across voice and text.
• Scale exposes sloppiness. One of our customers grew from 12 to 180 agents while remaining compliant. That works when rules are built into the workflow instead of taught agent by agent.
• Integrate, do not rip and replace. Most teams already have a CRM. Compliance controls should connect to it, not force a migration.

This is our approach, not a legal opinion. Have your attorney confirm how the safe harbor and revocation rules apply to your specific calling programs.

— Marc

What to look for in a dialer or CRM

Before you commit to a platform for regulated outreach, ask:

1. Can it store consent and last-contact dates per contact, and keep them from being overwritten on import?
2. Can it block a dial automatically based on a compliance flag, rather than showing a warning?
3. Does it apply opt-outs from any channel to one suppression list?
4. Does it support DNC scrubbing and TCPA controls natively?
5. Does it log every decision for audit?
6. For healthcare, will the vendor sign a HIPAA business associate agreement?
7. Can it work with the CRM you already run?

Our own guidance goes deeper on TCPA compliance for outbound teams, consent management for texting and TCPA compliance for insurance agents.

Compliance built into the dialer

RevRing connects predictive dialing, blended inbound and outbound calling, CRM connectivity and compliance infrastructure (TCPA, DNC, HIPAA BAA) in one platform. Plans start from $39.99 per month per seat on Starter, $59.99 on Scale and $89.99 on Pro. Enterprise has no published price. Telephony, SMS and AI call scoring are usage-based add-ons. See the pricing page for details, or look at how it works. Prefer to see it live? Schedule your live demo from revring.com.

FAQ

Is there a free reassigned numbers database?

No. The FCC’s RND is a paid, prepaid subscription that requires registration. There is no public or free list of disconnected US numbers. Beware of sites that claim otherwise: only the RND carries the FCC safe harbor.

How do I check if a number has been reassigned?

Register at reassigned.us, subscribe to a plan, then submit the number with the date you obtained consent or last reached the person. The result is Yes, No or No Data. For lists, use the file upload or API instead of manual queries.

Does a “No” result mean I can always call?

Only if you also have valid consent for that number and for that type of call or text. A “No” covers number reassignment, not opt-outs or the Do-Not-Call Registry. Honor any revocation the person has made.

Can I use the RND through a lead vendor or calling partner?

Yes, if the vendor is a registered Caller Agent with a Letter of Authorization on file for your company. Ask to see that arrangement before relying on their checks.

Sources

• FCC: Reassigned Numbers Database
• RND: Querying Data
• RND: Subscription pricing effective April 28, 2025
• FCC: Statement of Chairman Pai, FCC 18-177
• FCC: Reassigned numbers database established, December 2018
• FCC: Numbering resource report, DOC-381124A1
• Federal Register: Strengthening the Ability of Consumers To Stop Robocalls
• FCC: Effective date for TCPA revocation rules
• Nixon Peabody: FCC partially delays new TCPA consent revocation rules
• TCPA.com: Consent Under the TCPA