DNC will change telemarketing in S'pore

THE Do Not Call (DNC) registry started accepting telephone number registrations from yesterday. The registry will come into effect from Jan 2, 2014. From that date onwards, telemarketing companies will have to look up the registry and check telephone numbers before making calls. Local firms will pay a one-time registration fee of $30 (foreign firms pay $60) for an account which comes with 500 free number checks a year. Subsequent checks will cost 1-2.5 cents per number.

The new measure will be welcomed by many Singapore residents who do not want to be disturbed by cold telemarketing calls and SMSes. As such, the registry should be very popular, if one goes by international precedents. For example, in Australia, nine million numbers are listed on the Do Not Call Register (as it is called there), including two-thirds of Australian households with a fixed-line home phone and nearly four million mobile phones. Telemarketers found guilty of defying Singapore's DNC registry rules risk a maximum fine of $10,000. The only exception to this is if consumers give their written consent to telemarketers that they are willing to be contacted. Such consent, given before the registry's launch, will stay val…