The bane of cold calling telemarketers, Australia's Do Not Call Register now has more than seven million numbers on its list and it continues to grow. The news released today by the Australian Communications and Media Authority is a ringing endorsement of the push for consumer privacy against unwanted voice call intruders.

Consumers are still being seen as a soft target for telemarketers peddling fake tech support for computer users they try to convince that their system has been infected with malware. According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, many of the unwanted telemarketing calls are being made to consumers on the Government's Do Not Call Register.

Telstra is hoping that a recent upgrade to its SAS business analytics software that analyses date for marketing purposes will lead to a 15 percent improvement to hit rates in some of its outbound telemarketing campaigns.

Telephony and Internet services provider, gotalk's use of Indian call centres for outbound telemarketing in 2007 has come back to haunt it for the second time.

A bill that would extend do-not-call legislation from residential phone numbers to all phone, and fax, numbers has been referred to a Senate Committee for scrutiny and report.

Broadcasting and communications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), says that two in five Australians with mobile phones or an email account  - or 39 percent of the population – are unaware of who to contact to complain about spam email and SMS, and it is powerless to act to protect consumers’ rights unless it receives complaints.

The Federal Budget has allocated $4.7m to expand the Do Not Call Register to apply to business numbers, fax numbers and numbers used by emergency service providers.

An organisation representing a range of Australian carriers and ISPs has railed against Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo's "unsolicited advice" to the incoming Barack Obama administration that it should put part of an economic stimulus package towards improving fixed and wireless broadband in the US.

The ACMA says that telecommunications companies are responsible for 55 percent of complaints from people who have listed their phone numbers on the do-not-call register in order to avoid unsolicited telemarketing calls.

Telemarketing might be big business, but Australians hate it - not least because it's costing $A1.58 billion a year in wasted time.