Wisconsin cracked down on telemarketers on two fronts Wednesday.

A bill preventing telemarketers from using cell phone numbers advanced in the state Legislature and the Department of Justice began a lawsuit against a telemarketing company for violating state restrictions.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, would make cell phone numbers eligible for the statewide No Call List, which previously was open only to landlines.

?People don?t want their cell phones called by telemarketers, that?s the bottom line,? said Julie Laundrie, spokesperson for Erpenbach.

The bill also increased the maximum fine per violation from $100 to $1,000.

Erpenbach?s bill passed the Joint Committee on Finance with a few minor changes, including one that keeps small businesses from adding their numbers to the list.

?We think the bill now is on the fast track toward passage,? said Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, a member of the committee.

He said the final version of the bill satisfied both Republican and Democratic concerns.

?I do think it was a fair compromise that will protect small businesses,? Suder added.

Erpenbach is also satisfied with the changes.

?Obviously we?re very hopeful, really positive about it passing the Senate, and hope, because of the compromises that have been made, that it?ll be smooth sailing in the Assembly,? Laundrie said.

The original legislation creating the No Call List came from Erpenbach?s desk in the first place.

?Sen. Erpenbach started out his legislative career, and still is, very interested in privacy and issues of privacy,? Laundrie said. ?He was drawn to the fact that it could be paid for by telemarketers and not taxpayers.?

More than one million Wisconsinites added their phone numbers to the list last year, according to a statement from Erpenbach.

The state of Wisconsin is also suing Arizona-based telemarketing company Preferred Readers Service, Inc. Since December 2005 at least nine people have reported Preferred Readers violated the No Call List, according to the complaint.

?We have complaints of repeated, harassing calls by the company as well as complaints involving consumers who paid for magazine services that the company failed to provide,? Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement.

Preferred Readers allegedly hung up when asked for caller identification and called homes several times a day for weeks or months at a time, according to the complaint.

Other complainants were allegedly offered an extension on magazine subscriptions, and provided credit card information. They later learned no extension had been made, and Preferred Readers was not even authorized to do so.

The telephone number listed for Preferred Readers Service, Inc., was disconnected, and calls to President Vicki Allen were not answered or returned as of press time.