NEW DELHI: Telemarketers can no longer take umbrage at
the National Do-Not-Call (NDNC) Registry.
With the NDNC providing virtually no relief to phone
users, the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai) on Wednesday changed the rules of the game and mandated that only
those who register to receive promotional calls should be accessed by
telemarketers—and that too between 9 am and 9 pm. So, come 2011, and a call
or a message from a real estate agent or a fitness equipment seller will not
interrupt your sleep.
Besides, to alert you against pesky calls, a new number series—starting with
70—will be allotted to telemarketers. Likewise, a unique SMS header allows
for easy identification of commercial SMSes.
The stricter regulations also envisage a higher penalty of up to Rs 2.5 lakh
and the telemarketers, who are found to be repeat offenders, face the
prospects of their calls being blocked.
The NDNC Registry had limited scope, while the new process allows consumers
a wide choice of either completely blocking all commercial calls and
messages or choosing to receive SMSes from certain segments such as
financial products, real estate , education, health, consumer goods and
automobiles , communications, tourism and leisure.
Customers can register by calling or messaging 1909, which is a toll free
number, and registration will become effective within seven days against 45
days now. The good news is that all customers who are already on the
National DNC register need not register afresh and all commercial calls and
messages to their number will be barred.
Registration of telemarketers with Trai has also been simplified and made
online . Those who have already registered with the
DoT need not apply
while those who are not will be registered immediately after online payment
of the registration fee.
Scrubbing of numbers which used to be done by a centralized agency earlier,
causing delays and other difficulties , has now been replaced by a system
where telemarketers are required to scrub the data before sending the SMSes/making
the calls through their service providers network. In addition, it has also
been made mandatory for the service providers to filter the data. This
two-stage screening is designed to stop unsolicited calls/SMSes.
Telemarketers have been restricted to 100 text messages a day and Trai has
ensured that they are required to enter into an agreement with the service
provider before they get telecom resources. As part of the agreement, the
telemarketers are required to commit a deduction of Rs 25,000 for the first
offence going up to Rs 2.5 lakh for the sixth offence from the security
offered by them. Thereafter, the telemarketer will be blacklisted and will
face disconnection services for two years.