GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS 

RAJYASABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2696
TO BE ANSWERED ON 16^th DECEMBER, 2011
Penalty Against Unsolicited Callers and Message Senders

2696.  SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR:

 Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

(a)    Whether  the  Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  has  recently  imposed regulations to curb unsolicited calls and messages to mobile phone users by telemarketers and telecom companies;

(b)   If so, whether mobile phone users still continue to receive text messages as well as telemarketing calls, in spite of this restriction;

(c)    If so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and

(d)   The penalties imposed against the violators to prevent such harassment to the consumers?

ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI MILIND DEORA)

(a)       Yes Sir.

(b) & (c) Since coming into force of "The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010" from 27^th   September 2011, the number of unwanted commercial calls ISMS has come down substantially. Prior to coming into force of this regulation, on an average 47454 complaints were received per month. (March 2010 to March 2011) However, the total number of complaints lodged by telecom consumers with their service providers from 27^th September to 30th November 2011 were only 9746 (4498 complaints per month). From these complaints, it is seen that the complaints largely relate to Unsolicited SMS while complaints relating to unsolicited calls have reduced considerably. Also it is seen that the majority of complaints of Unsolicited Commercial Communications relate to un-registered telemarketers.

Contd...2/-

(d) To prevent such harassment to the consumers, the following action has been taken against the violators (till 30th November, 2011):-

 i.    3409   notices   has been   sent   to subscribers   who   have   not   registered   as   a telemarketer but were doing the telemarketing activities.  410 telephone numbers of such subscribers have been disconnected.

ii.            In case of violations by registered telemarketers,  since coming into force of these regulations   from  2ih September   2011,  till  30  November   2011,  the  Access Providers  have penalized  registered  telemarketers  in 18 cases  and deposited  the amount with TRAI as per the details given below: