Trai to seek industry views on Do-Call registry

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will issue a consultation paper this week for stakeholders to elicit views on a ‘Do-Call’ registry, where only registered users would be called by telemarketing firms.

A senior Trai official said the lukewarm response to the National-Do-Not-Call (NDNC) registry was the reason behind exploring the possibility of a Do-Call Registry (DCR) instead.

Introduced in October 2007, the NDNC has just gathered 20 million cellphone users of the 448 million wireless subscribers, who have opted for no-calls from pesky tele-marketing companies.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the government to explore the possibility of having a ‘Do-Call’ registry. As and when that comes up, telemarketing companies would call only the registered cellphone users. Unsolicited calls made to cellphone users outside the registry would be illegal.

Industry experts said a DCR would be far more effective in putting a stop to such unwanted calls.

DoT had earlier referred the matter to Trai.

There have been increasing complaints that unsolicited telemarketing calls persist, despite having the mechanism in place.

For the telemarketing companies, it would also be easier to target their pitches.