By IANS
New Delhi : Millions of telephone users in the country pestered by unsolicited calls from telemarketers can heave a sigh of relief as they can now enlist their numbers with a national “do not disturb” registry.
And in 45 days from the date of registration, no telemarketer is allowed to make any unsolicited call as per the regulations notified by the industry watchdog, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
“Consumers who do not want to receive such calls or SMS from telemarketers can register with the National Do Not Call Registry with the help of their service providers,” said TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra.
“They will get a confirmation within 10 days. And from the 45th day no call can be made to such registered numbers. We have taken a very stern view on this and strict penalties have been prescribed,” Misra told IANS.
To ensure transparency, relevant rules – The Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications regulations, 2007 – have been notified in the official Gazette and covers both mobile and landline phones.
“Many telecom firms already had a do not call registry kind of a thing earlier. But now on the system has got more teeth, more centralised. The telemarketers would now get software that would have the numbers of users who do not wish to be called,” said S.C. Khanna, general secretary, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI).
Under it, the telecom watchdog has already made it mandatory for telemarketers to register with the Department of Telecommunications, and no service operator can henceforth provide telecom services to unregistered telemarketing companies.
“It is to inform the Telemarketer that it should only use those phone numbers for making calls which have been registered for telemarketing. Use of any other number for telemarketing shall be viewed seriously,” a TRAI order said.
To discourage telemarketers from making unsolicited calls, a penalty of Rs.500 per call/SMS has been fixed and the watchdog expects to notify a higher rate after seeing the response and complaints.
“The registry does not discriminate between poor and rich. Any subscriber can request his/her service provider to get his number included. This facility is free of cost,” said Minister of State for Communications Shakeel Ahmad.
“The scheme is applicable to unwanted telemarketing SMS messages also.”
As per the TRAI orders, customers can contact their respective operator through phone, customer care number, SMS, Internet or a simple letter to get the numbers registered in the ‘Do Not Call Registry’.
In 10 days, the subscribers will get verification from their service providers and within 45 days they should stop receiving such unwanted calls. But after 45 days if they receive even one call/SMS, they can complain with all details.
“The defaulter telemarketer will face disconnection of telecom service.”