DNC to get redefined from August 15
TRAI had announced the new rules regarding Do-Not-Call (DNC) last year under which telemarketers who call customers registered with DNC would face fines of Rs.75,000 for the first violation and up to Rs.2.5 lakh for the sixth offence, after which they would be blacklisted for a period of two years, but this had not been implemented so far. After a long wait, rules aimed to bring relief to millions of customers from pesky telemarketers and unwanted commercial text messages may be implemented from August 2011, finally.
Close-to 100 million mobile phone users, or one in eight cellphone subscribers, had signed up under the old DNC introduced in 2007, but the regulator was forced to act after rampant complaints from users of its ineffectiveness. Earlier, the penalties were only between Rs.500 and Rs.1,000.
As per the new rules, mobile users will have a choice of blocking only telemarketing voice calls while choosing to receive SMSes. Even when receiving text messages, the customer can specify an area of choice, such as banking, financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure. Registered telemarketers would not be allowed to send any commercial communications between 9 pm and 9 am, even to unregistered customers.
TRAI has sent a fresh communication to the DoT seeking that it completes the process of allotting the "140" number series to all telemarketers, to help consumers spot unsolicited commercial calls, by June-end. Once this process is completed, telcos will require between 4-6 weeks to install the requisite filtering mechanisms on their networks to protect customers registered with the DNC.
Differences in allotting this numbering system, coupled with demands from mobile phone companies which had sought more time to upgrade their networks, had delayed the implementation of the new rules. Even as the regulator is aiming at a tentative date of August 15 to kick off the new DNC registry, according to a market buzz, BSNL has sought additional time till the calendar year-end to upgrade its exchanges to handle the new series of ten-digit numbers starting with 140.
For More Details See
www.varindia.com