(a) whether it has come to the notice of the Ministry that telecallers are circumventing do-not-disturb rules and finding new ways and means to call customers;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government against such telecallers;
(c) whether TRAI has come out with an App to help customers to report any unwanted calls; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and the procedure to upload the App?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) & (b) Madam, TRAI has laid down a framework for regulating Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) in 2010, which came into effect from September, 2011. Regulations have been reviewed periodically to tighten the regulatory framework to address these issues. With the steps taken, the UCC complaints have decreased from 44000 per week in September, 2011 to 3460 in 2nd week of July, 2016. From the complaints received by service providers regarding receipt of UCC, it is seen that, mostly subscribers without getting themselves registered with TRAI as a Telemarketers are violating the provisions of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010 by sending UCC to customers registered in the National Customer Preference Register for not receiving such communications. However, upon receipt of complaint, the Regulation provides for disconnection of all telecom resources and blacklisting of name and address of such subscriber for two years and during such period he will not be allowed to take any telephone connection. 317784 numbers of such unregistered Telemarketers have been blacklisted for 2 years till 14.07.2016.
(c) & (d) Yes, TRAI has developed a mobile App “DND Services” to help customers report any unwanted calls through easy registration of UCC Complaints to the service providers. With this App, the customer can also check the status of his complaint. This app is available at the Google App store and Mobile Seva App store. The links for the apps are given below:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trai.dnd&he=en
and https://apps.mgov.gov.in/descp.do?appid=1087
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