Pesky calls will come to an end on February 1

The new year will not bring cheer to phone subscribers who have been waiting for pesky calls to go away. They’ll have to wait a month more.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday said unsolicited commercial calls won’t stop from January 1, 2011, even as it had earlier issued a regulation to block pesky communication in an effective way starting new year.

TRAI said the revised norms on checking unsolicited calls and SMSes would come into force on February 1, instead.

TRAI issued the Telecom
Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation, 2010 on December 1, 2010, to provide an effective mechanism for curbing unsolicited commercial communications from January 1, 2011, the regulator said on Tuesday.

It added that “having regard to the aspect of security audit of the website to be created for the purpose of these regulations and the other processes involved,” TRAI found it necessary to re-determine the dates for implementation of the regulations.

Pesky calls and SMSes have continued despite TRAI coming out with do-not-call regulations more than two years ago, but no concrete action was taken either by the government or the regulator to curb the menace.

However, when finance minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed his annoyance over a marketing call he got in August while he was in a meeting with opposition leaders, TRAI decided to put an end to the practice of unsolicited communication.

Subsequently, TRAI ai issued a regulation promising to block unsolicited commercial calls and SMSes.