Do Not Disturb/Call Me, TRAI NCPR Regulation

In 2007, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) set up National Do Not Call (NDNC, also called as do not disturb, DND) Registry to curb unsolicited Commercial calls. i.e. any call/message, through telecom system promoting any commercial transaction for goods, investments or services, which a subscriber does not wish to receive.

It failed to help customers and in 2011, TRAI came up with new policy with name National Customer Preference Register (NCPR) and it became operational on 27th Sept, 2011.

Mobile phone users who want to register their phone number for Do not call registry may dial 1909 or SMS to 1909 with keywords ‘START 0‘ for registration and ‘STOP DND‘ for de-registration. Requests will become effective in 7 days from the date of request.

Partial Blocking: Apart from normal full blocking of telemarketing calls, subscriber now will also be able to opt for partially blocked mode, which will allow to receive promotions for specific categories like real estate, education, finance,  entertainment, health and tourism etc. This seperate list will be now called as National Customer Preference Register (NCPR).  By default, all subscribers will be moved to fully blocked mode. For partial blocking, SMS needs to sent to 1909 will be ‘START Option-Code’ and ‘STOP Option-Code’ . Once changed, preference cannot be changed for next 3 months.

Option code for each category is provided below:

1. Banking/Insurance/Financial products/credit cards
2. Real Estate
3. Education
4. Health
5. Consumer goods and automobiles
6. Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT
7. Tourism and Leisure

So if you want to receive messages relating to only Banking products, then send SMS “START 1” to 1909. Similarly, for receiving messages relating to Health and Education, send SMS “START 4,3” to 1909.

Phone subscribers can check the status of their registration in Commercial Communications Customer Preference Registry here.

How to complain: In case subscriber still receives call/messaes, he should complain to mobile service provider, mentioning the caller/sender telephone number, date/time of the call and details of message. All complaints must be actioned upon within 7 days.

If you receive any unsolicited commercial communications seven days after registration of your telephone number in the NCPR, you may register a complaint by:

1. Dialling the toll free number 1909; or
2. Sending an SMS to 1909

It is important to note that: The complaint has to be registered from the telephone number on which unsolicited commercial communication has been received. Your complaint must be made within three days of receipt of the unsolicited commercial communication.

A. REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT BY DIALING 1909:

Dial 1909, listen to the instructions and choose one of the following to register your complaint: Through customer care executive or Through IVRS(Interactive Voice Response System)

A1. REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT THROUGH CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVE:

1. Dial 1909 and select the option for registering the complaint through the customer care executive.
2. Provide the details of the unsolicited commercial communication to the customer care executive including:
   a. Particulars of the telemarketer;
   b. The telephone number from which the unsolicited commercial communication originated;
   c. The date and time of the unsolicited commercial communication
   d. A brief description of the unsolicited commercial communication.
3. The customer care executive will register the customer complaint and acknowledge the complaint by providing a unique complaint number.
4. Preserve this unique complaint number for further communication.
5. You will be informed of the action taken on your complaint within 7 days of the complaint booking.

REGISTRATION OF COMPLAINT THROUGH SMS TO 1909

1. You may register a complaint regarding receipt of unsolicited commercial communications by sending SMS to 1909 in the specified format given below: “COMP TEL NO XXXXXXXXXX, dd/mm/yy, Time hh:mm” where XXXXXXXXXX – is the telephone number or header of the SMS, as the case may be, from which the unsolicited commercial communication has originated.
2. The complaint will be registered and acknowledged by the access provider by sending a unique complaint number through SMS.
3. You will be informed of the action taken on your complaint within 7 days of the complaint booking.

Click here to check your complaint Status

TRAI has announced to minimize unsolicited calls by penalizing telemarketing firms and operators with hefty fine.

From Sept 2011, all telemarketer’s calling numbers will start with ‘140‘. All telemarketing must get special phone numbers starting from ‘140’ series, so that mobile phone user may decide to accept or reject just by looking the caller phone number. If some telemarketer calls from any other number (not starting with 140), he may be fined with hefty penalty.

TRAI has proposed fine from 25,000 upto 2.5 lakh (depending on number of times complaint has been registered) on telemarketing firms against whom complaints have been received.

Mobile service provide maybe fined upto Rs 10 lakhs, if there are four times complaints.

Mobile phone subscribers (non tele-marketers) can now only send maximum 100 SMS in a day. It will stop marketers to use mobile numbers not registered as tele-marketers and will force them to get a separate marketer number.

Every telemarketer will have to deposit 10,000 (9,000 for customer education and 1,000 as registration fee) for registration. Also a security deposit of Rupees 1 Lac, also will have to deposited. Any fines on telemarketer will also be deducted from this security amount.

Commercial messages can only be sent during 9am till 9pm only.

Mobile phone operator will be managing customer preferences at their end and filter out SMS/Phone calls based on subscriber registration status.