New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) Millions of telecom subscribers in India would finally heave a sigh of relief from Monday when the much-awaited Do-not-call-registry comes into effect, ensuring that unsolicited telemarketing calls and SMS are blocked.
Effective Monday, no telemarketer would be permitted to call those who are registered with the National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC).
This was initiated on Jun 5 when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) brought out a mechanism for curbing unwarranted telemarketing calls under the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007.
“We are fully supportive of this move initiated by TRAI. It was a very dearly needed regulation both for the operators and consumers,” T.V. Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), told IANS.
TRAI has already made it mandatory for telemarketers to register with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and no service operator can henceforth provide telecom services to unregistered telemarketing companies.
Consumers who do not wish to receive the telemarketing calls can simply enlist their number with their respective operator, and within 45 days the registration would be effective.
Telemarketers have also been directed to get the entire list of these consumers through the website – www.ndncregistry.gov.in – and if they make a call or send SMS to any registered number then their numbers are liable to be disconnected.
As per the latest data available with TRAI, over 6.5 million subscribers have so far registered with the NDNC.
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator, has received over three million such requests, while Vodafone has got 1.6 million.
“This is definitely a good initiative and is currently at an evolving stage, but I am sure this is going to be beneficial to all stakeholders in the long run,” said a spokeswoman from Airtel.
State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) have received 157,489 and 43,996 of such applications respectively.
“This kind of a policy would be tremendously useful for everyone. But only time will tell how effective it turns out to be,” said Anshlesha Kewadkar, a Mumbai-based software professional.