If all goes well, the phone customers would not receive any telemarketing calls and SMSs now in India. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued notice against telemarketing companies to check unwanted telemarketing calls such as fixed line calls, mobile calls and SMSs.

According to the report, the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations 2007 has come into effect and the companies that use telemarketing will have three months time from now to register their names with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

From September 5, the nuisance of unwanted calls are likely to be controlled with great effect. According to the regulation, if any telemarketer makes a repeat unwanted calls or send commercial SMSs to phone user, they will be charged a sum of Rs 500 as penalty per call or SMS. The TRAI has notified about the penalty in regulation through 45th amendment of the telecom tariff order.

When the telemarketers will be found as guilty for the first time they will get a warning from the concerned service provider. In case of repeat calls, the service providers will disconnect phone connections of telemarketers.

The new regulation says that the National Informatics Centre will have the authority for the installation, operation and maintenance of the National-Do-Not-Call-Registry (NDNC regsitry).

According to the regulation, the phone customers can ask their service providers to register their phone numbers in the NDNC. Telemarketers will have to register their numbers with the NDNC registry too.

The regulation has the definition of unwanted commercial calls as ‘any message through telecommunication service which is transmitted for the purpose of informing about or soliciting or promoting any commercial transaction in relation to goods, investments or services which a subscriber opts not to receive.

The SMSs related to charities, national campaigns or natural calamities sent by the government or any other authorized agencies will not be included in the unwanted calls definition. The messages in the interest of sovereignty, integrity, security, and public order of the country may also not be included in the list of unwanted calls.

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