11th December 2006
Article from Herald Sun
More than 1,065,000,000 telemarketing calls are generated by 30,000 Australian-based call centres alone.
Analysts believe up to twice that many are coming in from overseas centres, including at least 50 million calls a year from India.
On top of that are billions more unsolicited texts and emails received by Australian mobile phones and computers.
The Telecommunications Ombudsman registered 1738 complaints last year from Australians who became fed up with having dinner interrupted by a plague of telemarketing calls.
Another 113,000 Australians have lodged do-not-call requests with the telemarketers' voluntary register but the Federal Government estimates more than one million Australian numbers will be registered on the new compulsory do-not-call register when it begins in the new year.
From May, the Government will roll out a $33 million national Do Not Call Register, where people can sign up on a database that prohibits telemarketing calls.
Telemarketers will face fines of up to $200,000 for ignoring the Do Not Call Register.
Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia managing director Bernard Holt said Australia's telemarketing industry employed 229,000 people.
Australia had 30,000 call centres, ranging from four-seat operations to 1000-seat rooms making and receiving 7.1 billion calls across the nation.
"This is an enormous business," Mr Holt said.
He said overseas-based call centres were now focussing on Australia and more Australian-based centres were looking at moving operations offshore.
This was a relatively new development, he said.
"I do know that a number of companies have said they are moving to India."