Registration of telemarketers to commence from Jan 15: TRAI

In the first step towards ending the menace of pesky calls, the telecom watchdog, TRAI, today said it will start online registration of telemarketing companies from Jan 15.

In the first step towards ending the menace of pesky calls, the telecom watchdog, TRAI, on Friday said it will start online registration of telemarketing companies from Jan 15.

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"The new telemarketers will have to pay a registration fee of Rs 1,000 and customer education fee of Rs 9,000 while the existing telemarketers will have to pay the customer education fee of Rs 9,000," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement.

"The registration would be valid for a period of 3 years unless revoked earlier," it added.

Last year, the telecom watchdog announced a set of new measures to curb unsolicited commercial calls and messages, which were to be implemented from Jan 1, including online registration of the telemarketing companies on Dec 15.

The registration process which required all the telemarketers to fill in online application forms for getting themselves registered was postponed citing security reasons.

The regulations, which are expected to curb the menace of pesky calls, includes a fine in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs. 2,50,000 for defaulting companies and allocation of a number starting with '70' to telemarketers making it easy for customers to recognise their numbers.

Unlike the previous regulation that asked customers to register their numbers in 'do not call' list, users can now choose from different categories like 'fully blocked' or 'partially blocked,' under which a customer can receive communication for categories of his choice.