TRAI To Penalize Operators For Unsolicited Calls; DoT Considers “Do Call Registry”
By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 18 Mar 2008 02:09 AM PST
Many of our readers agreed that India’s Do Not Call Registry is a failure; despite registering, consumers continue to receive unsolicited calls and messages. Over the past couple of months, not much has changed. Now, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has planned to do something about the ineffectiveness of the registry: they’re going to (pdf) impose a financial penalty on service providers - mobile operators like Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) etc - of a maximum of Rs. 5000 for first instance of non-compliance, and Rs. 20,000 for every subsequent non-compliance. Also, telemarketers are will have to pay Rs. 500 for each first unsolicited call, and Rs. 1000 for every subsequent call.
So...a consumer has to complain to the mobile operator against the telemarketer. This way, aren’t you penalizing the operator for recording that complaint? The operator has an incentive to ignore that complaint, then. Also, if not to the operator, then where else does a consumer complain?
Now it appears the DoT is considering a Do Call Registry - wherein people will choose to opt-in. Would you ever opt in? Reminds me of that phrase in Hindi - aa bel mujhe maar (asking for trouble). Anyway, there’s the status of the Do Not Call Registry so far: 8.3 million users and 13600 telemarketers have registered. Only around 600 telemarketeres access the NDNC daily for ‘scrubbing’ their do not call list. Of 1522 million numbers uploaded by telemarketers, 1411 have been cleared by the NDNC. Here’s the regulation regarding the NDNC
The issue has been discussed in the Parliament, the Supreme Court, The Delhi High Court and the Reserve Bank of India. Consumer representations have been made.
Posted in: Policy
