Telecom regulator head J.S. Sarma gets a taste of spam

The menace of unsolicited calls and messages has not spared even the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), J.S. Sarma. "I keep receiving spam calls and messages," admitted Sarma. The Trai head is so distressed by the endless unsolicited calls and messages from telemarketers that he is reported to have told colleagues that he is even willing to change his mobile number to avoid being disturbed. However, Sarma denied having any plan to do so.

"I don't pick up calls that originate from telemarketers. But I have no control over spam messages. I generally receive three to four spam messages from telemarketers in a day," said the helpless chairman of Trai, which is meant to check unsolicited commercial calls by telemarketers. The regulator has failed to put in place an effective filtering mechanism for unsolicited calls and messages. Trai has made several attempts to curb unsolicited commercial calls, including creating a 'Do Not Call Registry', but without much success. Pesky voice calls have reduced to some extent, but SMSs have increased manifold.

Trai is even said to be under pressure from telecom lobbies to delay the implementation of filters indefinitely. The regulator has already deferred the implementation of the filtering mechanism four times, the last instance being the March 21 deadline. "I cannot give you any specific deadline for an effective filtering mechanism for unsolicited calls and messages. But DoT (the department of telecommunications) has agreed to all our objections and shortly we will see it rolling out," claimed Sarma.

Unsolicited commercial calls and SMS are a major issue of concern for telecom subscribers with consumer making a large number of complaints. Subscribers continue to get text massages and calls from telecallers and other agencies, despite having registered for the National Do-Not-Call (NDNC) Registry.

However, influential people do not really face such a problem with operators filtering calls and messages from telemarketers or other such unwanted sources. This move comes in the wake of Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee receiving a call from a telemarketer on August 2 last year offering him a loan. This had prompted telecom minister A. Raja to immediately dash off a note to telecom secretary P.J. Thomas, asking him to take steps to ensure that unsolicited calls stop immediately. A number of MPs had also called for steps to end such disturbing calls. Unfortunately, only Mukherjee and a few others benefited by this move.

"There is no proper redressal forum. Subscribers who make complaints against unwanted calls and messages are not taken seriously by operators. The bulk messages and unwanted messages market is over Rs 335 crore in India, with over 16,800 crore bulk messages being sent to mobile users every year. Huge stakes are involved. Tata Teleservices alone has a share of 71 per cent of the bulk SMS business," said Ajoy Eric Lal, an activist who is fighting against pesky calls.

Courtesy: Mail Today