National do-not-call list launched

http://www.msnbc.com/news/931528.asp

WASHINGTON, June 27 — Hundreds of thousands of Americans attempted to register on the national do-not-call list Friday — officially launched by President Bush earlier in the day at a White House ceremony — to stop unwanted calls to their homes from telemarketers. The huge volume of people accessing the Web site slowed it down considerably, and prompted the Federal Trade Commission, the agency running the site, to tell consumers it is not imperative that they register immediately.

IT TOOK an MSNBC.com reporter four attempts to log onto the Web site early Friday. A confirmation e-mail needed to complete the registration process, which the site said would arrive within minutes, still had not appeared several hours later.
Katie Harrington-McBride, a staff attorney for the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, said that “the Web site is running a little slow,” due to heavy volume — 250,000 confirmed registrations as of 10 a.m. ET — but that response times should improve as the day wears on.
She said confirmation e-mails were being delayed but were in no danger of being lost.
“They’re not in jeopardy,” she said. “It’s just a matter of waiting a few hours.”
Harrington-McBride noted that anyone who registers before Aug. 31 will be included on the first registry, which will go into effect on Oct. 1.
Registration opened just after midnight. As of 12:00 p.m. ET Friday, the program’s Web site was being visited 1,000 times every second, the FTC said.

WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY
Bush launched the national do-not-call list to stop unwanted telemarketing, saying the last thing people need at home “is a call from a stranger with a sales pitch.”
“Unwanted telemarketing calls are intrusive, they are annoying and they’re all too common,” Bush said at a White House ceremony.
Telephone registration using a toll-free number — 1-888-382-1222 — is available in states west of the Mississippi River, including Minnesota and Louisiana, starting Friday, and nationwide by July 7, the FTC said.
The list will block about 80 percent of telemarketing calls, said FTC Chairman Timothy Muris.
“People own their homes and their phones and now they will have a choice about whether they want the calls,” Muris said in an interview.
Telephone registration is being done in stages to ensure the system can handle the volume of calls expected, the FTC said. The commission expects up to 60 million phone numbers to be registered in the first year.
People who sign up this summer should see a decrease in telemarketing calls after the FTC begins enforcing the do-not-call list on Oct. 1. Registrations will have to be renewed every five years.
On the Web site, people will have to provide the phone number they want protected and an e-mail address to receive confirmation. Consumers calling the toll-free number will have to call from the telephone number they want to register.
Telemarketers attempt up to 104 million calls every day, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
The industry has said the registry will devastate their business and has sued the FTC, saying the program amounts to an unlawful restriction on free speech.
The FCC voted 5-0 Thursday to add its authority to the do-not-call list, blocking telemarketing calls from within a state — the FTC could only police interstate calls — and from industries whose calls the agency regulates, including airlines, banks and telephone companies.
Of the states with do-not-call lists, 13 plan to add their lists of 8.1 million numbers to the national registry this summer, three have legislation pending to allow them to share, and 11 will not share the information, the FTC said. Consumers on state lists added to the national one need not register again.

Beginning in September, telemarketers will have to check the list every three months to see who doesn’t want to be called. Those who call listed people could be fined up to $11,000 for each violation. Consumers would file complaints to an automated phone or online system.
Exemptions from the list include calls from charities, pollsters and on behalf of politicians. Registered consumers also can give written permission to get calls from certain companies.
A company also may call someone on the no-call list if that person has bought, leased or rented from the company within the past 18 months. Telemarketers also may call people if they have inquired about or applied for something from the company during the past three months.
But consumers can avoid those calls by asking to be put on an individual company’s do-not-call list.
Congress authorized the FTC to collect up to $18.1 million from telemarketers to pay the program’s expenses in the first year.