The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is expected to come out with a set of rules pertaining to telemarketing activities. As part of this mechanism, the regulator proposes to implement fines ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 0.2 million on such companies and also disconnect their telephone connections.
The regulator?s move will offer relief to over 700 million mobile users in India. So far, less than 90 million of them have registered themselves with the Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry. The regulator was forced to act due to rampant complaints by DNC customers who were receiving numerous unsolicited messages and calls.
Under the new system, mobile users would get the option of blocking all telemarketing voice calls and receiving text messages only. And even while receiving text messages, users could specify an area of their choice such as banking, insurance, loans, automobiles, real estate, etc.
TRAI will ensure that all telemarketing firms have mobile and landline numbers starting with the 70 series so that customers can identify such calls. The regulator is also implementing changes in the earlier format to add additional level of checks to ensure that customers registered with the DNC are not subject to such calls. In so far, telemarketers were required to register the number with the DNC registry, which was being maintained by the NIC. Under the new mechanism, both the mobile operator and the telemarketing firm will have to run a check.
Operators will also be asked to put up software in place to ensure that telemarketers could not reach their DNC customers. For the first six violations, telemarketing companies face a fine, following which their licenses would be cancelled. TRAI will also ask operators to install softwares to track violations by telemarketing firms that have multiple connections from different service providers. Besides, in a bid to ensure that telemarketing firms do not take fresh connections on cancellations, the registration process of these firms would include all details of the firms, including PAN cards.
Moreover, to ensure that telemarketers do not make commercial calls from unregistered numbers, the operator will be mandated to cut off any connections to those numbers after the second complaint. To prevent bulk SMS-based spam messages, TRAI?s rules will also cap the number of text messages to 100 per day.
