Starting today, telecom operators have blocked telemarketing calls and text messages, in accordance to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI) recommendations.
Prior to this, to curb such calls and text messages, TRAI had asked telecom operators to limit the number of short message services from September 27, 2011. TRAI had said that no access provider shall permit sending more than one hundred SMSs per day per SIM.
As per the recommendations, post-paid users could send 3,000 SMSs per month per SIM. In case a customer wants to use more than the prescribed limit of 100 SMSs a day, the access provider is to obtain an undertaking from such subscribers that the said telephone number shall not be used for sending any commercial communications.
TRAI has recommended imposing a maximum fine of Rs 0.25 million on telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls or sending text messages to a subscriber registered in the National Consumer Preference Registry, which is a modified version of TRAI’s Do Not Call Registry list.
Subscribers can opt for either the Fully Blocked category or the Partially Blocked category, wherein they would receive text messages as per the categories chosen. TRAI has also stipulated that messages in the Partially Blocked category can be sent to the consumer between 9 am and 9 pm.
TRAI has identified eight categories, including banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure, in the Partially Blocked category.
To register under the fully blocked list, a customer is required to send START 0 as a text message to 1909.
However, industry bodies, such as the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) have asked TRAI to reconsider its recommendation of limiting the number of text messages a user can send per day. COAI opines that such a regulation may pose a potential challenge to the fundamental rights of the subscriber.
In response, the regulator has exempted various service providers, including the dealers of telecom operators, e-ticketing agencies and social networking sites, from the new limit of one hundred SMSs per day per SIM.
