Both the phone lines and Web site enabling Canadian citizens to sign up for their country’s federal do-not-call list failed on the first day of operations due to overwhelming demand, according to published reports.
The list, which went live on Tuesday at 12:01 am, boasted 200,000 registrants by 9 am. But that was apparently a fraction of those attempting to sign up. The list’s Web site – www.dncl.gc.ca – crashed early in the day, and people dialing in to a sign-up number reported getting busy signals, according to reports.
At one point, 18,000 citizens attempted to register at the same moment, a spokesperson told CTV.com, a Canadian news site.
Numbers on the sites are not considered forbidden until 31 days after registration, according to CTV.com.
Of the 27 million residential phone numbers used in Canada, 16 million are seen as being placed on the list within two years, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Co.
