Telephone numbers of 51,181 subscribers not registered as telemarketers but were doing telemarketing activities have been disconnected. Notices have been served on 88,307 subscribers who have committed similar violations, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Milind Deora, said in a response to a Rajya Sabha question. According to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, no subscriber, who is not registered with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a telemarketer, shall make any commercial communication. On verification of a complaint that a subscriber not registered as a telemarketer with TRAI indulged in unsolicited commercial communication , the operator issues a notice to the subscriber to stop doing so. If the subscriber persists , the Regulation allows disconnecting the subscriber.
Based on this provision, action has been taken against the violators (till July 30), the Minister said. “From the complaints’ data received from service providers, it is seen that the majority of complaints of unsolicited commercial communications are sent by telecom subscribers who were not registered as a telemarketer.”
The Government is aware that several calls and SMSes are being made/sent by subscribers not registered with TRAI as a telemarketer, by using normal telephone connections having numbers other than the ‘140’ number series allotted to registered telemarketers, Deora added.