How many times have you been interrupted from watching your favorite television show, tucking the kids with a bedtime story or unwinding with your significant other, with a call from someone offering a free estimate on new windows? Perhaps you were the lucky winner of a Las Vegas vacation (if you attend a special seminar on timeshares). Maybe you were really unhappy with your current long distance provider?

The telephone is the most immediate personal mode of communication but often the most intrusive. Unsolicited telemarketing calls have been a national problem since the coupling of telephones with free enterprise. The telemarketing industry has evolved through a series of technological advancements that spun the growth of unwanted calls out of control.

After receiving countless complaints throughout the nation about uninvited calls, the federal government took action. Two years ago the National Do Not Call Registry was launched. It is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency and enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and state law enforcement officials.

Telemarketers who call a number on the national Do Not Call registry could be fined up $11,000. The new FTC rules also require that telemarketers have Caller ID enabled and limit abandoned 'hang up' calls from predictive dialers. Consumer phone numbers will remain on the registry for five years from the date of registration. Telemarketers must register to obtain the list and pay a small fee per area code for the privilege.

According to the FTC, during the 72 hours before the Do Not Call Registry became available to telemarketers, more than six million consumers added their telephone numbers to the list. Since inception the total number of consumer telephone number on the list has soared to approximately 88 million.

Exempt from the law are political organizations, banks, airlines, insurance agencies, realtors, telephone carriers, charities, telephone surveyors or companies with which you have an existing business relationship. Thank goodness I still have the choice of switching my long distance provider!

Shrewd telemarketers have turned to other venues including internet & email advertising, direct mail and sales promotion. Other firms are working within the confines of the law by utilizing the loopholes. Telemarketing firms have started implementing new and innovative ideas to bypass the list. Some are offering special discounts or payment terms if customers agree to accept telemarketing calls. Others are making strategic mutual agreements using the "established business relationship" clause to market product to each other's customers. Conglomerates that own many companies to market their products are consolidating their marketing strategies in order to sell products to channels of all their affiliated companies. Additionally, if a consumer makes an inquiry, telemarketing firms still have the right to solicit their business for a period of three months. Indeed some consumers may get even more calls because the pool of available numbers is shrinking.

Some surveys suggest that eventually 97 percent of all homes will sign up to the registry. But are consumers really opposed to telemarketing calls? The key is relevance to the consumer. If a consumer has an interest in the product then the call may not be seen as intrusive. A common example is buying a car. During the purchasing process the consumer might contact a number of dealers about information. But once he has purchased a car, calls from dealerships may be considered a nuisance.

The Do Not Call registry seems to have a number of loopholes that can be exploited but the registry seems to be reducing annoying calls. In a survey released in February of 2004, Harris Interactive found that 92 percent of those who signed up for the registry had fewer telemarketing calls, and 25 percent of those registered indicated they had received no telemarketing calls since signing up.

Now if only I could get my mother in law to stop calling...

Rito Salomone is the president of Resource Software International Ltd. (RSI). He has 17 years experience in the field of communication management solutions.

For more information you can review: http://www.telecost.com or http://www.callaccountingsoftware.com or contact the author at rsalomone@telecost.com.

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