The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is likely to extend the January 1, 2011, deadline to end unsolicited calls and SMSes by a month (early February 2011), after mobile operators expressed their inability to meet the time limit, citing technical and network upgrade problems, besides contractual obligations with telemarketing companies.
Trai said it cannot extend the January 1 deadline for unsolicited calls and SMSes beyond a month. The operators had told the regulator that they will need four to six months for making the "Do Not Call Regulations" system operational.
Telecom operators have also approached the department of telecom (DoT) to seek a four to six months extension of deadline in order to set-up proper infrastructure to stop telemarketing calls.
Bad call
- Trai said it cannot extend the January 1 deadline for unsolicited calls and SMSes beyond a month
- Trai said it cannot extend the January 1 deadline for unsolicited calls and SMSes beyond a month
- Telecom operators have also approached DoT for a 4-6 months extension of deadline to set-up proper infrastructure
- Major operators offering services to telemarketers include Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Reliance Communications & Loop
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"The operators have told us that they have other obligations like MNP (mobile number portability which has to be rolled-out across the country from January 20, 2011) and have work piled up for upgrading their infrastructure. But we cannot stretch the deadline beyond a month as there has been lot of hue and cry over the issue and we don't want to invite public's ire," said a Trai official.
"We have also told them that they have already delayed MNP for over a year. They cannot keep doing that. We cannot keep their business interests at the cost of the interests of the subscribers. Operators will delay the implementation by a month's time because of certain security concerns," the Trai official added. However, there has been no official confirmation from Trai in this regard.
Telecom operators are desperate to buy more time because of the high stakes involved - the bulk SMS business in India is worth over Rs 250 crore annually. Service operators sell packages of about 1 lakh bulk SMSes for charges ranging between Rs 2000 and Rs 4000.
On December 1, 2010, Trai had come out with guidelines on unsolicited telemarketing calls and SMSes, which were to be implemented from January 1, 2011. "We have approached Trai to give telecom operators some more time to comply with the necessary security concerns and also so that they can set-up their infrastructure to filter the calls to stop unsolicited telemarketing calls," Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general, Rajan S. Mathew said.
"It is unlikely that telecom operators will meet the January 1 deadline as it needs time to put in place infrastructure so that you can filter the calls and stop pesky calls. The operators are asking for one to four months time in order to comply with Trai's guidelines," said S.C. Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (Auspi), which represents the CDMA operators said. Trai had come out with a fresh set of recommendations because the earlier 'Do Not Call Registry' system had proved ineffective. Unsolicited commercial communications are among among the biggest nuisances for telecom consumers.
Only 11 per cent (seven crore) of the 65 crore mobile phone users in India are registered with the 'Do Not Call' Directory. According to the new guidelines a 'Do Call Directory' system will also be introduced, wherein the numbers of only those consumers who are interested in receiving telemarketing calls would be entered. This, in effect, means that the telemarketers would lose the bulk of their consumers and their reach would shrink substantially.
On August 12 this year, Trai had organised an open-house discussion on the issue with various stakeholders. The meet was virtually sabotaged and hijacked by the telecom operators, leaving no chance for consumers to put across their view. The major operators offering services to telemarketers include Tata TeleServices, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Loop, among others.
A different set of numbers starting with '70' will be issued to telemarketers so that any unregistered subscribers can identify commercial calls and decide whether to accept or reject them.
Courtesy: Mail Today
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