The Times discusses robocalls.

More companies are buying automated dialers, or contracting with call centers to do the work, because the price per call has fallen to as low as half a cent, from 25 cents in the 1980s, said Paul Kowal, an industry consultant. Dialers can call thousands of phone numbers in seconds.

The growing number of “robocalls” has alarmed privacy lovers, people who need their phones constantly and those who resist the onslaught of commercialism. Amid thousands of complaints, the Federal Trade Commission expects, as soon as this summer, to revise its regulations to bar such calls unless customers have given express permission.