Mobile subscribers may well have to resign themselves to receiving intrusive and irritating unsolicited commercial calls and text messages, since the
telecom regulator has failed to set any fresh deadline after postponing its own deadline for implementation as many as four times.
Sources say the earliest that one can hope for some kind of a solution might be by December this year. The deadline was last deferred - for the fourth time in a row - on March 21. But both regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which has to provide the technical infrastructure for such a ban to work, have no clue as to by when they would actually be able to put up a filtering mechanism to end this menace. When asked, DoT secretary R. Chandrasekhar said there were "technical issues" involved in allotting a new series of ten digit number starting with '140' to telemarketing companies using landline phones, as recommended by Trai.
"I cannot give you any timeline. DoT as well as Trai officials will meet this week. There are certain technicalities that will have to be worked out. There is no similar model in the world which we can go by," Chandrasekhar told Mail Today.
An official explained that it would take time for DoT to upgrade exchanges across the country for issuing a separate series of ten digit number starting with '140' to telemarketing companies. the work could stretch to this yearend or more, said a dot official.
"We need to do the reconfiguring in exchanges for a trouble-free service. We cannot have two identical numbers from one exchange. That will make it difficult to trace any number," the DoT secretary further explained.
At present a landline call can be identified based on STD code followed by digits. DoT officials explained that it will be difficult for security agencies to track calls as a call using the new '140' series will display a uniform code instead of the STD code for connections across the country.
Besides, opening a new '140' level would end up creating extra capacity in each exchange as telemarketers are not present everywhere, officials said. The DoT feels that if it allowed the new series now without making necessary changes in its exchanges across the country, it would be a security threat to its network.
On Trai's request DoT had issued a number series starting with '140' to tele-marketing companies for mobile phone numbers but not for fixed line (landline) connections. Adding three digit series to landline numbers will take total digits to 13. And to transmit a 13-digit number to the telecom network, especially for caller line identification, BSNL and MTNL need to install modern equipment in exchanges. BSNL has more than 38,000 telephone exchanges for landline connections throughout the country, which need to be upgraded to handle transmission of 13-digit number series.
Making it even worse further for the subscribers, the Telecom tribunal, Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) recently ruled that telcos could continue with their pacts on existing numbers with telemarketing firms as the DoT has not yet finalised a special numbering series for them.
Industry sources said many telecom operators have entered into fresh rounds of agreements this month with telemarketers to carry forward their business, which runs over Rs 350 crore a year.
Courtesy: Mail Today
Both regulators, Trai and the DoT, have no clue as to by when they would actually be able to put up a filtering mechanism to end this menace. 
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