No pesky calls, SMSes from mid-night; telcos are ready

"All our operators are ready to implement the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to curb the menace of unsolicited calls and SMSes. However, we are concerned about the 100 SMSes per SIM a day and we will be in discussion with the regulator to sort this out," telecom lobby COAI's Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

On September 5, after much delay, Trai came out with recommendations to stop pesky calls and text messages from September 27. The regulator has ordered that no access provider (operator) shall permit transmission of more than 100 SMSes per day per SIM.

"We are ready and we will fulfil the requirements of Trai," BSNL CMD R K Upadhyay said.

MTNL officials could not be reached for their comments.

MTNL CMD Kuldip Singh had earlier said that the PSU would meet the requirements.

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, he/she will receive SMSes in categories chosen.

Trai has identified eight categories -- banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure -- in the National Consumer Preference Registry.

For registering under the fully blocked list, a customer may SMS 'START 0' to 1909.