Mobile subscribers are not set to get third time lucky as the new March 1 deadline to get any respite from unsolicited commercial calls (UCC) and messages from telemarketers is unlikely to be met yet again.
The telecom operators have approached the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) again and pleaded to defer the implementation of
guidelines further to check the
pesky calls by atleast two more months.
"We have contractual obligations with telemarketers till the end of the financial year (March 31, 2011). We have assured Trai that we would also have the technical solution in place by then," said a top official with a leading mobile operator.
On January 31, Trai said it has delayed checks on UCC by telemarketers for a month. The regulator set March 1 as the new deadline to implement the guidelines as operators said they were facing difficulty in upgrading their infrastructure after a change in the allocated series for tele-marketers from '70' to '140'.
On January 31, DoT has communicated a fresh numbering series beginning with the number '140' in place of '70' series. According to the new Trai order, customer preference registrations would begin from February 10, which would be effective within seven days.
"Filtering marketing calls is a complex and large task for us given the number of operators involved and the number of circles and mobile switches involved. It is a complex and large task," the official added.
"Operators now have to install new hardware and software to perform filtering and will also have to programme their mobile switches to facilitate integration of the new hardware and software installed to do filtering," he pointed out.
The new regulations give customers different options to list under the 'fully blocked' category (Do Not Call Registry) or the 'partially blocked' category. The second option will allow subscribers to receive SMSes in the categories chosen by them.
Courtesy: Mail Today
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