GATINEAU – Bell Canada has won a five-year contract to run the newly established National Do Not Call List (DNCL), the CRTC announced today.
The company was the only bidder that was compliant with the requirements of the Request for Proposal.
Bell Canada will be responsible for registering numbers, providing telemarketers with up-to-date versions of the list, and receiving consumer complaints about telemarketing calls.
In addition, Bell Canada will operate the National DNCL using the fees that telemarketers will pay to subscribe to the list. The contract stipulates that the list should be launched by September 30, 2008.
Once the list is up and running, Canadians who prefer not to receive unsolicited calls will be able to add, at no charge, their numbers to the database.
Telemarketers will then be prohibited from calling consumers who are registered on the list, with certain exemptions. These include unsolicited calls made by or on behalf of:
* Registered charities
* Political parties
* Nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party
* Opinion polling firms
* General-circulation newspapers
* Organizations that have an existing business relationship with a consumer
* Organizations to business consumers.
