The issue of unsolicited text messages continues, despite the combined efforts of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to curb the same, say news reports.
TRAI?s Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, came into force from September 27, 2011. As per the regulations, subscribers can register with the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR) to either bar all commercial communication under the ‘fully blocked’ category, or receive SMSes in chosedn categories by registering themselves in the ‘partially blocked’ category.
Thereafter, as per TRAI data a total of 161.66 million customers registered their preference on NCPR as of March 29, 2012. Further, the regulation states that if an unsolicited commercial communication originates from a subscriber who is not registered with the regulator as a telemarketer, the service provider shall issue a disconnection notice to that subscriber.
Since the implementation of regulations, TRAI has penalised 94 telemarketers and blacklisted four telemarketers.
Nevertheless, the issue continues. Now, telemarketing companies that are not registered under TRAI?s NCPR are using new SIM cards and internet portals that offer bulk messaging services.
These companies are not liable to pay operators a termination charge for every SMS sent in bulk as they fall outside the ambit of TRAI?s regulations in this regard.
