COLORADO GOES GREEN!: D. Colo. is Latest Jurisdiction to Find SMS Are Not “Telephone Calls” For TCPA DNC Purposes

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The tide continues to swell on the “texts do not equal calls” argument.

As TCPAWorld reported last week, this is the new majority rule after district courts in Alabama and North Carolina adopted the 7th Circuit’s position in Steidinger v. Blackstone Med. Servs., 182 F.4th 532 (7th Cir. 2026).

Well the trend continues.

In Radvansky v. 1st Class Medical, 2026 WL 2858562 (D. Colo. Sept. 23, 2026) the Court followed Steidinger and concluded SMS messages are not “telephone calls” under the TCPA’s DNC rules– becoming the 17th district court to so hold.

The analysis is tight and consistent with cases reaching similar holdings:

  1. The definition of telephone at the time the TCPA passed focused on transmitting “sound” at a distance– SMS do not make a sound;
  2. The definition of “telephone solicitation” includes the word “message” but the private right of action is afforded only to those who received “telephone calls“–not solicitations (this is my favorite argument);
  3. The FCC’s rulings on the subject are not persuasive; and
  4. Policy arguments do not carry the day where the plain language establishes SMS is not covered by the DNC’s private right of action language.

Again no new analysis here– but a whole new territory has just gone green.

As you can see the center of this map is starting to look mighty green– even as the edges are red. BUT only ONE case outside of the 9th circuit has held SMS are calls since Steidinger– and that was the one #biglaw lost to a guy with no lawyer in Texas! (eesh)

We will continue to keep an eye on this.

Also if you don’t have a copy of the Troutman Amin, LLP 2026 TCPA Annual Review, presented by Contact Center Compliance (now Sonera) what’s going on?

Chat soon.

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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