Freedom from telemarketers (almost)
If you have been bugged with telemarketers calling you up to offer you free loans, credit cards, and numerous other such ‘tantalizing’ offers, then help is coming your way. The Indian telecom regulator (TRAI) has started the process of offering a way out for citizens. There is a proposed Do Not Call (DNC) registry that will be put in operation on April 1 (and no, I am not trying to fool you on April Fool’s day).
So people have to just inform their cellular operators of their wish to enter their names in the Do Not Call registry (along with exceptions; example, a person can continue to receive calls for home loans and nothing else), and it is the responsibility of the operator to enter their name in the registry. Further, there is no expense in this, since the cost of maintaining such a registry will be borne by the operators.
More details are available in this ET report.
In a unique arrangement, customers who enroll for the DNC registry can opt for a blanket ban on all telemarketing calls or can select the kind of calls they wish to receive. For instance, a member of this registry can opt to receive only telemarketing calls related to home loans or FMCG products. Trai, in its guidelines on the DNC registry, will specify that subscribers will only have to inform their service provider to enroll. It will then be the operators’ responsibility to register these subscribers’ numbers in a central DNC registry that will be maintained by an independent agency, Trai sources told ET. The guidelines will be made public next month.
The regulator cannot implement penalties, so if you wanted to penalize a particularly persistent credit card applicant, this is still not possible. However, it seems possible that it could be made more difficult by dis-connecting the number of the offender.
This measure will go a long way in making the life of the consumer better, and even if a bit late, is still a very good measure. Now the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we need to wait to see how good the implementation of the measure is.
January 29th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
[...] Tired of telemarketer’s calls? Apparently, help is on the way. If you have been bugged with telemarketers calling you up to offer you free loans, credit cards, and numerous other such ‘tantalizing’ offers, then help is coming your way. The Indian telecom regulator (TRAI) has started the process of offering a way out for citizens. There is a proposed Do Not Call (DNC) registry that will be put in operation on April 1 [...]
January 30th, 2007 at 10:03 am
It’s about time the government brought out a national DNC list. I have had it with those nuisance calls.