The CRTC has given approval to the proposed rates for accessing the Do Not Call List database.
To subscribe to the database will cost $11,280 per year for all of Canada, or $600 per area code.
There is also an ad hoc query rate. Let’s say you are a company that received a list of sales leads and you want to validate them. Just pay Bell $0.50 per number and the list will get checked against the database.
Accordingly, telemarketers that are required to subscribe to the National DNCL can expect to pay the following in these hypothetical examples:
- A telemarketer that conducts telemarketing campaigns across Canada throughout the year could get an annual subscription for $11,280, which would give them access to all area codes for a full year.
- A telemarketer that conducts telemarketing campaigns in just four area codes throughout the year could get a subscription for $2,460.
- A telemarketer that conducts a seasonal telemarketing campaign across Canada that lasts just three consecutive months could get a subscription for $2,970.
- A telemarketer that conducts a limited telemarketing campaign that targets just 50 telephone numbers could query those 50 numbers for $25.
We can expect that the contract for subscriptions will have prohibitions against resale.
Will businesses that aren’t professional telemarketers comply? Is the cost of compliance such that companies will choose to take their chances and not bother checking?