Hutch initiates steps to check unsolicited calls

Within days of the Supreme Court giving a ruling on the issue of unsolicited calls to cell phone users, Hutch, the leading cellular services provider in Gujarat, has launched an initiative which enables users to protect themselves against unwanted calls.

On Thursday, Hutch announced that it will initiate action towards reducing unsolicited calls to its users. Hutch users can also request to be put on a special list of users who do not want to receive any tele-marketing calls.

Mobile users can inform Hutch about unsolicited calls they receive by sending an SMS 'STOP' followed by the caller's number to 123. In turn, Hutch will take up the matter with organisations initiating these calls to prevent further calls from these numbers to its other subscribers.

Speaking about the 'Do Not Disturb' initiative, Harit Nagpal, chief marketing officer, Hutch, said in a statement, "We are concerned about protecting our users' privacy. The 'Do Not Disturb' campaign is an action point to address this concern."

He added, "As a service provider, we inform our users about new tariffs and services regularly. In case, some users do not want to receive these routine service-related calls too, they can inform us by sending 'DND' as an SMS to 123, and we will suspend such calls from us as well."

Elaborating on the issue he stated that cellular service providers were not providing a database of users to the telemarketing agencies.

Nagpal said, "Unsolicited calls to mobile phones take place with the help of private databases of mobile numbers. These databases have probably been collated when people give their mobile numbers while filling up forms physically or on the Internet. In fact, it has been observed that most unsolicited callers do not even know the name of the person they are calling."

Hutch serves over 12 lakh subscribers in Gujarat. Fascel Ltd provides cellular services in Gujarat under the brand name Hutch and is part of the Hutchison Essar group of companies.

The Supreme Court directive came earlier this month in response to a public interest litigation filed by one Harsh Pathak, who approached the court, seeking a ban on unsolicited calls, as these amounted to invasion of privacy.

A bench comprising justices N Santosh Hegde and S B Sinha, called 11 respondents, including cellular operators, the central government and banks on the issue.