Hundreds of thousands of Amer-icans hoping to keep unwanted telephone sales calls at bay signed on to a free "do not call" list on Friday that will prevent most telemarketers from bothering them at home.
Eager Americans rushed to place their home phone numbers on the Federal Trade Commission's list shortly after US President George W. Bush unveiled it in a White House ceremony.
By 2:30pm EDT the list had grown to 635,000 and was on pace to top 2 million by midnight West Coast time, an FTC spokeswoman said.
The do-not-call list should help Americans enjoy their private time without unwanted interruptions, Bush said a few hours after the list was opened up for registration.
"When Americans are sitting down to dinner or a parent is reading to his or her child, the last thing they need is a call from a stranger with a sales pitch," Bush said in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.
Telemarketers who call numbers on the list after Oct. 1 will face penalties of up to US$11,000 per call, as well as possible consumer lawsuits.
Consumers will not have to pay to get on the list, as it will be funded by telemarketers.
Plunging long-distance rates and computerized dialers have led to a five-fold increase in telemarketing calls over the past decade, prompting a deluge of consumer complaints.
Telemarketers have bitterly opposed the list, but FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said it would help them target consumers who do not mind getting sales calls.
"If you talk privately with telemarketers ... they will tell you that they don't want to call people who don't want to be called," Muris said at the White House.
Do-not-call lists have proven popular in the roughly 25 states that have set them up. In Minnesota, for example, roughly half of the state's 2.2 million residential line subscribers have registered.
Telemarketing groups have sued to scratch the effort, arguing that it abridges free-speech rights, and say it could wreak havoc on an industry that employs 2 million.
Privacy advocate Jason Catlett, who has pushed for a national list for years, said he has little sympathy for their plight.
"Free speech doesn't give you the right to pester people in their homes when they don't want to be pestered," said Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp, which helps clients avoid unwanted commercial pitches.
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