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COMPUTER CALLS IRK LEGISLATORS

WASHINGTON (REUTER) Automated telephone advertising calls are a growing nuisance and need federal regulation, several senators and witnesses told a hearing.

"Computerized message players are a nuisance and an invasion of an individual's right to privacy," Senate commerce committee chairman Ernest Hollings, said yesterday.

"They are not just a nuisance, they're plain dangerous," Sen. Larry Pressler added. He said the calls can tie up emergency telephone lines.

Hollings and Pressler have introduced bills to regulate the calls and to ban calls to emergency numbers.

Witnesses at the committee's hearing said telemarketing firms are using computer-operated telephone systems to make hundreds of calls a minute with recorded advertising messages. Because the computers call telephone numbers in sequence, they can reach unlisted numbers, telephone pagers and cellular telephones.

Holling's bill would prohibit unsolicited computerized telephone calls to homes, emergency numbers, pagers and cellular telephones. It would also ban unsolicited advertisements to facsimile machines.

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