It has been a while since he called.
No doubt somewhere, someone will get the message “This is your captain calling” along with a blaring foghorn and the promise of a vacation cruise.
For Canadians, those spam calls appear to be coming to an end.
After years of wondering aloud when action will be taken, The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has laid the groundwork to force telephone companies to better manage their customer experience in that respect.
We have all been there one time or another. Busy chatting up old friends or family, only to have the line interrupted by a call that seems to be local.
It happened again recently when a call came in from Chatsworth and you guessed it – the telemarketer asked if I needed my ducts cleaned.
This new demand on communication companies is meant to counteract obnoxious unsolicited calls.
From July 2020 to October 2021, Bell Canada reported their new call-filtering measures blocked more than 1.1 billion calls. CRTC chair Ian Scott lamented almost 25% of calls to cell phones had become spam calls.
Now that some relief has been found for everyday Canadians it isn’t a time to totally let our guard down. Consumers should still be wary of callers seeking private information or claiming to be from a government agency.
With a bit of luck and finally some backbone at the CRTC, Canadians can hopefully enjoy some peace and quiet, free from telemarketers and nuisance calls.
