Relief at last: No more pesky calls, SMSes

Irritating calls from telemarketers will be a thing of past from Tuesday as telecom operators are going to block pesky calls and messages as per regulator TRAI's recommendations.

“All our operators are ready to implement the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to curb the menace of unsolicited calls and SMSes.

However, we are concerned about the 100 SMSes per SIM a day and we will be in discussion with the regulator to sort this out,” telecom lobby COAI's Director-General, Mr Rajan S Mathews, said.

TRAI recommendations

On September 5, after much delay, TRAI came out with recommendations to stop pesky calls and text messages from September 27.

The regulator has ordered that no access provider (operator) shall permit transmission of more than 100 SMSes per day per SIM.

“We are ready and we will fulfil the requirements of TRAI,” the BSNL CMD, Mr R.K. Upadhyay, said.

MTNL officials could not be reached for their comments.

The MTNL CMD, Mr Kuldip Singh, had earlier said that the PSU would meet the requirements.

Subscribers have the option of choosing to be under the 'Fully Blocked' category, which is akin to the ‘Do Not Call Registry' If a user selects the ‘Partially Blocked' category, he/she will receive SMSes in categories chosen.

TRAI has identified eight categories — banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure — in the National Consumer Preference Registry.

For registering under the fully blocked list, a customer may SMS ‘START 0' to 1909.

Earlier, COAI had asked TRAI to reconsider its recommendation to limit the number of SMSes per SIM to 100 per day, saying that such a regulation may pose a potential challenge to the “fundamental rights” of an ordinary subscriber.

There are several instances where SMSes are an important mode of communication. There could be a situation where a customer has exhausted the limit and suddenly some emergency occurs. Due to this artificial restriction, the safety of the subscriber may be jeopardised, Mr Mathews had said in a letter to TRAI last week.

Post-paid numbers

In the case of post-paid telephone numbers, the access provider shall not permit more than 3,000 SMSes per SIM per month, TRAI recommendations added.

All those subscribers who have registered with the National Customer Preference Registry, earlier known as the 'Do Not Call Registry', would get relief from all commercial communications, TRAI said.

TRAI has recommended the imposition of a maximum fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls or SMSes to a consumer registered under the NCPR — a modified version of TRAI's ‘Do Not Call Registry' list.

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