Relief from pesky calls, SMSes from Sept 27

Subscribers can stay either under Fully/Partially Blocked categories

All those subscribers who have registered with the National Customer Preference Registry (NCPR)—earlier known as “Do Not Call Registry”— would get relief from all commercial communications, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its statement here while announcing a fresh deadline.

“Relevant clauses of regulations have been amended and the regulations are being implemented from September 27,” it added in the statement.

Last year, the regulator had announced recommendations to curb the menace of such calls and SMSes, but it could not be implemented in the absence of an identified number series. “The Department of Telecom (DoT) has provided ‘140’ number series to be allocated to telemarketers. Access providers (operators) have to make relevant provisions in their network before allocation of resources to telemarketers using ‘140’ numbering series from both mobile and fixed line networks,” Trai said.

Subscribers have the option of choosing to be under the “fully blocked” category, which is akin to the ”Do Not Call Registry.” If a user selects the “partially blocked” category, the person will receive SMSes in categories chosen by them. 

Trai has identified several categories, including banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure. If a subscriber wants calls or SMSes from a particular sector, he/she can choose that segment only.

Further, the regulator has reduced the periodicity for subscriber to change their preference in NCPR to seven days from three months.

As of now a call from a landline number can be identified based on an STD code—the initial digits and then levels (digits following STD codes), which differs from exchange to exchange within a city.

Adding three-digit series to landline numbers (140) will take total digits to 13 and to transmit such numbers on telecom networks, especially for caller line identification, two telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL requires  new equipment.

In case of violations, as per the revised guidelines, the  telemarketers will have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 for the first offence, which can go up to Rs 75,000 in case of a second violation, Rs 80,000 for the third, Rs 1.25 lakh for the fourth, Rs 1.50 lakh for the fifth and Rs 2.5 lakh for the sixth offence, following which the number will be blocked by all service providers.

If an unregistered ordinary subscriber makes unsolicited commercial communication, the person will be warned for committing the offence for the first time. On committing the offence for the second time, his/her telephone connection will be disconnected.