The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been trying to enforce its tough stand against unsolicited commercial calls and SMSes for a while now. It put forth several measures in the past to curb the menace of such communication, and now in an attempt to continue to do so it has issued the “The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2013”. These amended regulations aim to further tighten the framework for controlling the menace of such unsolicited communication.
Tougher rules for telemarketers (Image credit: Getty Images)
According to the new regulations, TRAI will be disconnecting the phone connections of banks, insurance firms, and realty players if they or someone on behalf of them are found flouting the rules set for unwanted calls and SMSes. The body had been receiving complaints from subscribers about such unwanted communication, and observed that a large number of these complaints were about calls or messages on behalf of banks, insurance companies, builders, etc. TRAI has stated that by engaging persons not registered as telemarketers, these organisations were flouting rules.
If upon verifying a certain complaint TRAI finds that the UCC has been sent by a subscriber who is not registered as a telemarketer then the service provider shall be liable to pay financial disincentives of Rs 5,000 on each complaint. Service providers are to submit, by the 15th of every month, a list of all bulk connections provided during the preceded month, to TRAI.
An excerpt from the body’s announcement reads: “In cases where the UCC contains reference to another telephone number or an entity such as banks, insurance companies, builders, for which the commercial transaction has been solicited, the telecom resources issued to the subscriber/ entity for which commercial transaction has been solicited, shall be disconnected across all service providers on receipt of a complaint, after serving notices each on the first and the second complaint.”
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