An overwhelming amount of interest in the national Do Not Call List for telemarketers crashed the website the day it came into effect.

The CRTC says about 200,000 people had registered for the service by about 9 a.m. The site and hotline were activated at 12:01 a.m.

“We are victims of our own success,” CRTC spokesperson Denis Carmel told CTV.ca. “At one point, 18,000 tried to get through at the same moment. If you would have told me these numbers yesterday, I would have laughed. It’s phenomenal.”

By 8 a.m., the site had crashed because of the sheer number of people trying to sign on, said Carmel.

Canadians began to complain early Tuesday morning as they tried to register for the service. The site worked sporadically throughout the morning but not everyone was able to register. At certain points, a posted message on the site said it was “unavailable due to planned maintenance activities.”

Calls to their automated hotline were also unsuccessful as many people couldn’t get through.

Carmel said they are currently increasing bandwidth on the site and working to get additional phone lines activated. He also said that people should keep trying throughout the day and the rest of the week to sign up.

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Update (next day):  The registry appears to be working fine this morning.  It’s about a two minute process.

Popularity: 23% [?]