Trai disconnects 14 lakh phones of unregistered telemarketers

Telecom regulator Trai has disconnected 14 lakh phones and blacklisted 1.8 lakh unregistered telemarketers for two years for sending pesky communications.
"Trai has disconnected 14 lakh phones and blacklisted 1.8 lakh unregistered telemarketers till January 31, 2014," Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.
He said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has laid down a revised framework for addressing unsolicited commercial communications (UCC). These regulations came into force with effect from September 27, 2011.
As per the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation, 2010, the National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC) has been renamed National Customer Preference Register (NCPR).

The telemarketers after registration from Trai get permission to access the NCPR.
Deora added that the regulator has also issued various amendments to these regulations to make the framework more effective.

He said Trai's regulatory interventions have largely tempered the menace of UCC, however, UCC (SMSes or calls) from persons not registered as telemarketers with Trai has not ceased.
"Such individuals deliberately masquerade themselves as "normal subscribers" even though their primary purpose for obtaining telecom resources is for telemarketing activities," he added.
Deora said Trai has been taking various steps to rein in unregistered telemarketers from sending UCC to customers registered in NCPR.

It includes putting in place a price restraint on sending of more than one hundred SMS per day per SIM, mandating telecom operators to put in place a solution, which will ensure that no commercial SMSes are sent having same or similar characters from any number.
He added: "With the implementation of the above measures the number of complaints regarding receipt of UCC from unregistered telemarketers has come down from around 45,000 per month in August 2012 to around 12,000 per month in January 2014.