Before the year-end holidays -- just in time to defend against telemarketers' seasonal offensive on your home phone -- you'll be able to e-bomb telemarketers out of you life and once again enjoy evening meals as you should -- without a dinner bell you dread.

The Federal Trade Commission earlier this week released its calendar for implementing the National "Do Not Call" Registry for consumers who want telemarketers out of their life.

Telemarketers, who generate nearly $300 billion in consumer sales a year, are cold calling salespeople who telephone their pitches -- too often with a disturbing ring right at dinner time when they know you are home.

Late last year, the FTC amended its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to give consumers a national registry that promises to provide them with more control over who can telephone them with a sales pitch.

Last week, President Bush signed financial legislation that allows the Federal Trade Commission to collect fees from telemarketers to fund the registry -- $16 million for the first year.

Telemarketers must be in full compliance by January 29, 2004, but enforcement begins in October.

This year, at the onset of the month when the nation celebrates its independence, the law will also usher in the beginning of liberation from telemarketers. In July, consumers nationwide may begin signing up with the registry for free, electronically, online. Anticipating a rush by consumers to take the telemarketing bullseye off their backs, the FTC says the initial sign-up by a yet-to-be-disclosed, toll-free telephone number will be phased in, region-by-region, over an eight-week period, also beginning in July.

Do-Not-Call details

Details of the new do-not-call law are being funneled through the FTC's "Do Not Call" Web site. Letting you make the call about telemarketers, the new law says, in part:

Published: March 27, 2003

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.