The Hindu Business Line : 6.5 million mobile users register for ‘Do Not Call’

New Delhi, Oct 5 Within just one month of launching the Do Not Call service, nearly 6.5 million mobile subscribers have registered their telephone numbers to escape receiving unwanted calls from telemarketers.

The DNC registry will come into effect from October 12 after which telemarketers will be penalised if they call mobile subscribers who have put their numbers that have been put on this list.

Bharti Airtel has the largest number of subscribers (3 million) who have listed their numbers in the DNC registry followed by Vodafone with 1.6 million users registering themselves.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had issued Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations, 2007, on June 5 for putting in place a mechanism for curbing the unwanted telemarketing calls.

“The NDNC registry is now ready and is going to be operationalised on October 12. Those subscribers who have registered before August 31, will not receive unsolicited commercial calls. The subscribers who have registered after August 31, will also get this benefit after a gap of 45 days,” TRAI said.

Levy for violation

As per the regulation, if any telemarketer calls subscribers listed on the registry then the telecom service providers have been directed to charge Rs 500 or disconnect their telephone lines.

TRAI had directed all telemarketers to get themselves registered with the Department of Telecom.

All the registered telemarketers are required to scrub their calling list from October 12 from NDNC Web site managed by the National Informatics Centre.

Clarification

For getting the benefit of the NDNC registry, the subscriber will have to register his telephone number with his telecom service provider. Once a telephone number is registered, it will take about 45 days for this mechanism to come into effect.

“The authority wants to clarify that only the subscribers registered with NDNC will be governed by the TRAI regulation. Those subscribers who have individually registered themselves with banks, credit card companies and other such agencies for ‘do not call registry’ are not included in the above dispensation,” TRAI said.