Realising that the National-Do-Not-Call (NDNC) regulation has failed to effectively control unsolicited telemarketing calls, the Centre is now promising a software to check the menace.
NEW DELHI: Realising that the National-Do-Not-Call (NDNC) regulation has failed to effectively control unsolicited telemarketing calls, the Centre is now promising a software to check the menace.
National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Department of Information Technology is almost ready with a software that will help telecom operators and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to control unsolicited telemarketing calls to a large extent, it is learnt.
A source in DoT told DNA Money that “the government decided to ask NIC to work on certain issues, mainly a software to
control telemarketing calls, as the current procedure has not taken off effectively”.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), 6.7 million phone subscribers have so far registered with the NDNC. The total phone subscribers in India are over 250 million now.
Although the regulation was issued by TRAI in June this year, the National-Do- Not-Call Registry became operational only on October 12. As for telemarketers, only 10,700 telemarketers have been registered so far.
It is estimated that there are around 30,000 telemarketers in the country. And, it is from these unregistered telemarketers that most of the unsolicited calls are being made despite subscribers enlisting with the NDNC, sources said.
Recently, TRAI sources told DNA Money that the penalty for making unsolicited commercial calls would be hiked significantly soon, perhaps from the current Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per such call or SMS.
Also, unregistered telemarketers or anybody making unsolicited calls to those phone subscribers enlisted in DNDC would have to pay the penalty, if TRAI revises its norms.
Currently, only “erring” registered telemarketers have to pay the penalty, on the basis of complaints made by subscribers.
According to the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communication Regulation 2007, unwanted telemarketing calls should stop 45 days after a subscriber registers his or her phone number with the NDNC registry.
There is also a buzz that the telecom regulator may soon approach the government to propose that “the permanent solution to curb unsolicited calls is through a legislation”.
However, when contacted, a DoT official said that “as of now, the current regulations would apply”, and he refused to comment on the future course of action.
While there is no law in India on this, most other countries have checked unwanted calls through legislation.
Even as there is all-round dissatisfaction with the telemarketing norms, there have been only 3,685 formal complaints against telemarketers for making calls despite users registering with NDNC.
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