Please, please put more restrictions on telemarketing calls. I find them extremely irritating on a daily basis. Telemarketers use my phone line, for which I have paid, to invade my privacy and interrupt my family time (mostly in the early evenings).

I feel that I must answer the phone because that call might be an emergency call from my mother who's 75 and depends on me. If she's really having an emergency (which has happened), she's not going to wait for the answering machine to click on, call out and wait for me to pick up if I'm there.

I don't think I should have to pay extra for caller I.D. or an unlisted phone number to protect my phone line from unwanted use. Even if I had Caller I.D., I would still be interrupted by that phone call, waiting to see the number and waiting for the answering machine to pick up or taking the trouble to disconnect them. Also, not answering does not get me taken off their calling lists. I always ask to be taken off the list.

If I had my way, I'd like to make telemarketing illegal with these exceptions:

1. calls from charitable organizations to whom I have given in the past.I don't like these calls either, but at least they have a legitimate relationship with me.

2. calls from businesses to whom I have given written permission to call me. An example might be my auto dealer calling to remind me that the oil change on my car is due soon or that a recall notice for a bad part can be fixed at their service location.

Even for these exceptions, I would like to limit them to regular business hours of 9 to 5 or 10 to 6. If I'm not home, they can leave a message.

Failing that, I would like to be able to register with my local phone company, to be put on a "Do Not Call" list, at no cost to me, to which telemarketing companies would be required to subscribe and pay for. The burden should rest on the telemarketing companies to get my permission to call me, not on me to tell each individual company to not to call me. These companies get no business from me anyway, so they are wasting their time and money.

Please more restrictions on the ever-increasing number of calls to my home every day. Thank-you very much. --C. Conway