E-Paper
Dial 1909 for freedom: curbs on pesky calls, smses kick in
Users got the much-awaited relief from unsolicited commercial calls and SMSes, as the new regulation, restricting unsolicited marketing calls and SMSes, came into force on Tuesday. HT reports.
Users got the much-awaited relief from unsolicited commercial calls and SMSes, as the new regulation, restricting unsolicited marketing calls and SMSes, came into force on Tuesday.
With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) 100-SMS-per-day ceiling, unregistered telemarketers, who used to send most of the bulk SMSes, now have to stop functioning.
“All those registered with the National Customer Preference Registry, earlier known as Do Not Call Registry, will get relief from all commercial communications,” telecom minister Kapil Sibal said while launching the service.
Subscribers can now choose between the fully or partially blocked categories by calling 1909. Also, they can change their preferences after seven days of registering.
“I feel liberated. Today, I did not get any pesky SMSes. Yesterday, I received about 150,” said Vinay Tyagi, a Ghaziabad-based sales executive working for a private firm.
Trai also plans to slap a termination charge of five paise per SMS from October 15 on service providers from whose network commercial SMSes originate.
It, however, exempted certain service providers, including dealers of telecom service providers and DTH operators for sending requests for electronic recharge on mobile numbers. The other services exempted are e-ticketing agencies, social networking sites and agencies providing directory services.
