Telecom Trends

Attention all mothers of kids on hockey teams, scouts, ballet dancers, church groups.

If your organization makes phone calls to sell tickets, run car washes, invite people to your strawberry social, you need to be aware of Telecom Public Notice 2007-15. The CRTC wants you to register and pay fees for telemarketing, even though the federal government gave a specific exemption to these kinds of calls.

I just came back from some vacation time and I couldn't believe paragraph 9c in the Public Notice when I read it.

The Commission therefore invites parties to comment on the following:
... the Commission's intent to establish a rule to require all telemarketers and clients of telemarketers, including those exclusively making telecommunications that are exempt from the National DNCL Rules, to register with, and provide information to, the National DNCL operator and to pay fees that may be charged by the third party who will be responsible for the investigation of Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules complaints.

Yep. Parliament exempted certain types of calls, but the CRTC is saying it intends to have exempt callers register and pay for the right to sell you cookies. The public notice is seeking comments on delegating its responsibilities for the Do Not Call List rules to the proposed Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services.

As I wrote in July, there are a number of exempt types of telemarketing calls, provided for in Parliament's changes to the Telecommunications Act. These include unsolicited calls made on behalf of:

• registered charities;
• political parties;
• nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party;
• opinion firms;
• general-circulation newspapers;
• organizations that have an existing business relationship with a consumer; and
• organizations to business consumers.

Previously, it had been considered that the 'existing business relationship' exemption would provide a safety net for non-registered charities, such as school clubs.

If you want to comment on the CRTC's plans, follow the Public Notice process. See Michael Geist's views on this subject.

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