4 ms·

One huge advantage of our system in the US is that it gives us a good excuse to scream bloody murder when legislators try to pass bills allowing telemarketers t

One huge advantage of our system in the US is that it gives us a good excuse to scream bloody murder when legislators try to pass bills allowing telemarketers to call cell phones. (This just happened, as a matter of fact.) If incoming calls were free, cell phones would become a lot less usable due to telemarketing spam.

yesbabyyes 15y ago
In Sweden, you can join a list of numbers that marketers can't call. And with TrueCaller, it's pretty easy to screen marketers. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but your system is just crazy.
train_robber 15y ago
There is a Do-Not-Call registry in India; where you can register your number if you do not want telemarketing calls.
- pbhjpbhj 15y ago
  Can I register my UK number with them. The standard way to avoid the UK Do-Not-Call registry appears to be to enlist an Indian call centre to make the call for you (and spoof the number too - though why the phone company even routes calls with spoofed caller ID I'm not quite sure.)
chousuke 15y ago
That's not really an advantage. If service providers and marketers were regulated reasonably, you wouldn't have to pay for receiving calls AND you could prevent telemarketers from calling you. Here in Finland there's a number you can call to register your phone on a do-not-call list. It doesn't stop all callers I guess, but I have had no telemarketing calls since registering about a year ago, so it is pretty effective. I do get an SMS or two from my service provider every few months, but I'm not bothered enough to do something about it.
- DanBC 15y ago
  The UK has a similar system. It's pretty effective. the loophole is that telemarketers are not allowed to call, but market researchers are allowed to call.
- narcissus 15y ago
  Plus, in Australia at least, the calling party pays a premium to call the mobile phone (essentially charged at a long distance rate, to a separate 'mobile phone' area code). So in reality, spam callers self regulate anyway: they know what area codes are mobiles and they know that those area codes will cost them.
meow 15y ago
Thanks to recent rule for telemarketers in India, we get almost zero telemarketing calls/sms if we register for do not call service. My phone was surprisingly silent from the day this rule came into effect. Ironically, this whole thing was proposed and pushed through by government because our finance minister got a telemarketing call offering a personal loan when he was debating about some thing in parliament :D

yesbabyyes 15y ago

In Sweden, you can join a list of numbers that marketers can't call. And with TrueCaller, it's pretty easy to screen marketers. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but your system is just crazy.

train_robber 15y ago

There is a Do-Not-Call registry in India; where you can register your number if you do not want telemarketing calls.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago
Can I register my UK number with them. The standard way to avoid the UK Do-Not-Call registry appears to be to enlist an Indian call centre to make the call for you (and spoof the number too - though why the phone company even routes calls with spoofed caller ID I'm not quite sure.)

chousuke 15y ago

That's not really an advantage. If service providers and marketers were regulated reasonably, you wouldn't have to pay for receiving calls AND you could prevent telemarketers from calling you. Here in Finland there's a number you can call to register your phone on a do-not-call list. It doesn't stop all callers I guess, but I have had no telemarketing calls since registering about a year ago, so it is pretty effective. I do get an SMS or two from my service provider every few months, but I'm not bothered enough to do something about it.

DanBC 15y ago
The UK has a similar system. It's pretty effective. the loophole is that telemarketers are not allowed to call, but market researchers are allowed to call.
narcissus 15y ago
Plus, in Australia at least, the calling party pays a premium to call the mobile phone (essentially charged at a long distance rate, to a separate 'mobile phone' area code). So in reality, spam callers self regulate anyway: they know what area codes are mobiles and they know that those area codes will cost them.

meow 15y ago

Thanks to recent rule for telemarketers in India, we get almost zero telemarketing calls/sms if we register for do not call service. My phone was surprisingly silent from the day this rule came into effect. Ironically, this whole thing was proposed and pushed through by government because our finance minister got a telemarketing call offering a personal loan when he was debating about some thing in parliament :D