BOSTON – As a national “do not call” list is launched to prevent telemarketers from harassing consumers, some telemarketers are actually grateful for the restrictions – and hope it will help clean up the industry’s image as annoying pests who call at the most inconvenient of times.

And many said it simply makes good business sense to target an audience that wants to hear the pitch.

“The average company doesn’t want to call you if you don’t want to buy their product,” said Marcia Hicks, a senior associate at Kowal Associates in Boston. “Good reputable companies would like to call you and me if we are interested, but the truth is, you’re not going to buy siding if you live in a condominium.”

Already, 41 states implemented their own do-not-call lists – some of which offer more stringent guidelines than the national register being set up by the Federal Trade Commission on its Web site: www.donotcall.gov.

Telemarketers attempt up to 104 million calls to consumers and businesses every day, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Beginning in September, telemarketers will have to check the list every three months to determine who does not want to be called. Those who call listed people could be fined up to $11,000 for each violation. Consumers would file complaints by submitting the company’s name and phone number to an automated system by phone or online.

The FTC expects people to register up to 60 million phone numbers in the first year. There are about 166 million residential phone numbers in the United States, the FTC said.

The Direct Marketing Association, a national organization of telemarketing companies, does not oppose the national list, but said the cost and the complications associated with additional regulations will force massive adjustments in the industry.

“The industry is going to have to get creative,” said Jim Conway, the group’s vice president of government relations. “Certainly there’s going to be a big adjustment. Certainly it’s going to have a negative impact as millions of people sign up. Certainly the smaller firms are going to have problems.”

The telemarketing industry is split depending on the market; telemarketers who conduct business-to-business solicitations generally feel as though the industry is being maligned, while telemarketers who contact consumers worry the restrictions will lead to layoffs.

“The majority of telemarketing companies, I believe, are really doing a good job and are running an honest business,” said Maureen Woods, president of A Better Call in Stoneham. “It really feels like a witch hunt.”

Woods, whose firm markets to other businesses, said no reputable telemarketer wants to call random or resistant consumers.

That was a sentiment shared by Michael Snavely, vice president of marketing for Bankers Life and Casualty Co. in Chicago. The list offers a “silver lining,” he said, because “It helps us quickly identify where we’re wasting our time and effort. It’s in black and white who doesn’t want to be contacted on the telephone.”

However, he said, the list will force his company to find other ways of contacting consumers – including door-to-door marketing. “This makes it more expensive for companies like us to provide our service to the marketplace, which ultimately will cost our consumers more,” he said.

Others in the industry say the national list could have a more significant effect than weeding out pesky calls. Keith A. Fotta, president and CEO of Gryphon Networks, which developed a technology to help telemarketing companies avoid calling homes that have registered, said the effect could be “absolutely devastating.”

The industry generates $680 billion annually, he said, but telemarketers’ operating environment has shifted from being completely unrestricted in all states to a nationwide regulatory system within just a few years.

“The real impact is jobs,” he said. “The environment now may cut in half in the next two or three years. There will not be enough (demand) to support the current industry.”

The Federal Trade Commission, which will help run the national list, reported that as of noon yesterday, about 1,000 people every second were visiting the Web site that accepted registrations to the list.

AP-ES-06-27-03 1600EDT