Telecom company lobbyists in Idaho are targeting “Do Not Call” laws that restrict telemarketing of phone and cable services, permitting sales calls whether residents are pre-registered on a “Do Not Call” database or not.

An Idaho House committee agreed to lift a 13 year old restriction this week that blocked telecom companies from pelting customers with sales calls.

Frontier Communications and CenturyLink, the state’s largest phone companies, both lobbied for the change that would permit both to begin marketing broadband services by phone instead of only by mail.

“Telephone companies are simply asking to be able to contact their customers, like any other commercial service provider,” Jim Clark, a Frontier lobbyist and former Idaho legislator, told the Associated Press. “The company that I represent in north Idaho, Frontier Communications, is spending an awful lot of money doing high-speed Internet, and they cannot tell their customers about it on the phone.”

Customers who do not want the telemarketing calls will have to register a request to stop sales calls with each company individually. If the companies keep calling, the state could fine them up to $500.

Idaho’s “Do Not Call” restrictions on telephone company telemarketers were originally introduced to control sales calls from a dozen or more long distance companies that used to aggressively market their services in the state. Those days are over.

But some worry the measure will mean a dramatic upswing in junk phone calls from cell phone providers, cable operators, and the phone companies themselves.

“The ‘Do Not Call’ list is based on what is commonly called the right to be left alone,” said Brett DeLange, chief of the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Bureau. “Idaho has now over one million phone numbers on the ‘Do Not Call’ list. No one on that list has ever contacted the attorney general’s office complaining they’re not receiving enough calls from solicitors.”

Some of the lawmakers voting for easing up on restrictions admit they might eventually regret it.

“I’m gonna tell you, do not call me, and I will look at that $500 penalty if I get called, because they are a pain in the neck,” said Rep. John Gannon (D-Boise).