Committee introduces bill on cold calls from phone companies

Here’s a news item from the Associated Press: BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A House committee has agreed to debate a bill to lift the ban placed on the ability of telephone companies to make customer cold calls. The House State Affairs Committee introduced the bill Thursday and sent it to the Business Committee for review. The bill is being pushed by Minnesota-based Frontier Communications and Louisiana-based Century Link Inc. The companies say a 2000 law to end cold calls to customers and create a “Do Not Call” list hampers their ability to market new services to customers. Lobbyist and former Idaho Rep. Jim Clark says the bill gives customers the ability to opt-out from solicitation calls. Pioneer is a land-line company with more than 100,000 customers in northern Idaho that is trying to break into the high-speed Internet market.