No relief from pesky calls any time soon

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has postponed the implementation of new telemarketing guidelines, which was scheduled to be operational from March 21. This means, there will be no relief for consumers from pesky calls and messages in the near future.

However, Trai has not yet fixed any new date for the implementation of the guidelines.

“We have not yet received the landline number series yet from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Unless that is given, it will be difficult for telemarketers to operate from mobile network. We have not decided the next date for the implementation,” Trai Chairman J S Sarma said.

In a notice on its website, Trai said till date DoT had not allocated the numbering resources for telemarketers from the fixed line network. This new numbering series will be required to be implemented by all operators before allocation of resources to telemarketer, which will need time for change in the configuration of the system and testing of new series.

Since there is no time frame available with Trai regarding the allocation of number resources by DoT, the new date for implementation will be notified once number resources for telemarketing from fixed line networks are allocated. DoT has already issued mobile numbers starting with “140” to help subscribers identify telemarketing calls.

Similarly, a series is to be allocated for landline numbers.

Earlier, the regulation over telemarketing calls was scheduled to be implemented on January 1. It was extended to February 1, and then to March 1 and later March 21.

On December 1 last year, Trai had come out with a set of recommendations on curbing the unwanted commercial calls. It had also suggested imposition of a hefty penalty of up to Rs 2.5 lakh on erring telemarketing companies. Earlier, there was a penalty of Rs 500-1,000 for defaulting telemarketers. Trai came out with a new set of recommendations as the earlier system of ‘Do Not Call Registry’ did not meet much success.