In order to curb the menace of unsolicited commercial calls (UCC), telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has asked the service providers to disconnect all the telephone numbers and internet connections of the persons or the companies from where the pesky UCC emerge.
Once the name of a subscriber is entered in the blacklist, all telecom operators will have to disconnect telephone and Internet connections provided by them to the subscriber within 24 hours. “No telecom resources will be allotted to such blacklisted subscriber by any access provider,” according to a press statement issued by the TRAI.
“The new regulation is basically to stop UCC provided by unregistered tele-marketers. Registered tele-markters generally follow the TRAI regulation,” said a TRAI official.
Registered telemarketers register with TRAI by paying a security deposit of R1 lakh. In case, a telemarketer is found violating these provisions, telecom operator has to deduct a specific amount from the security deposit and the telemarketer will also have to deposit an additional security deposit with TRAI.
For example, on the first violation R25,000 is deducted from the security deposit and the telemarketer has to provide an additional security deposit of Rs. 2 lakh. Similarly, the security deposit is increased to R4 lakh on the third violation and the telemarketer is banned for two years after six violations in a calendar year.
However, the regulator was not able to do much against unregistered telemarketers. “The UCC will reduce drastically under the new regulations,” said the TRAI official.
Between September 27, 2011 and April 15, 2013, as many as 5,27,457 complaints for UCC were registered, i.e., an average of 27,760 complaints per month, according to the department of telecommunications (DoT).