2M Canadians register for Do Not Call List

OTTAWA, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Canada's Do Not Call List is back at full speed, registering nearly 2 million people in its first 60 hours, telecommunications regulators said Thursday.

A first-day bottleneck that limited access has eased because BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada, which has a five-year contract to operate the list, increased Web and phone capacity, a spokeswoman for the regulatory Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission told United Press International.

The Web site received more than 9 million hits Tuesday and more than 1.5 million people tried to call in, the spokeswoman said.

About 1.9 million people registered by 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, she told UPI.

Nearly six times as many people have registered by Web than by phone, she said.

If a residential, wireless, fax or voice-over-Internet protocol phone number is put on the list, telemarketers are barred from calling that number within 31 days, or face a fine of up to $15,000 if they do call.

Exceptions include calls from charities, political parties, newspapers selling subscriptions and organizations with which the consumer has an existing business relationship, the CRTC spokeswoman told UPI.

People who do not want to be called by companies they currently deal with can ask to be put on those firms' internal do-not-call list.

Registration is done online at www.dncl.gc.ca or by phone at 1-866-580-3625.