Question : Unsolicited Commercial Communications

(a) whether the Government is aware that there are increasing incidents of unsolicited commercial communications in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;

(c) whether the Government has received any complaints with regard to unsolicited calls;

(d) if so, the details of the number of complaints received by the Government against various telemarketing companies during each of the last three years, company-wise;

(e) whether the Government has taken any action against the telemarketing companies involved in such incidents; and

(f) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND
ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) & (b) Yes Sir, Government is aware that there are incidents of unsolicited commercial communications in the country.

Government has undertaken an analysis of the complaints received by service provider from customers regarding receipt of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) during the year 2019 (upto May). The details in this regard are given below:
<pre>
Months Unregistered Telemarketers Registered Telemarketers Total
Jan, 2019 50519 61200 111719
Feb., 2019 51858 53760 105618
March, 2019 54239 54071 108310
April, 2019 50033 48111 98144
May, 2019 37788 42042 79830
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From the above analysis of the complaints received by service providers, it is seen that the number of complaints relating to UCC has declined during the current year.


For addressing the menace of UCC effectively, TRAI had reviewed the framework for controlling UCC and laid down a revised framework controlling UCC on 19.07.2018 through the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2018. These regulations are under implementation and have paved the way for effective control of UCC.

(c) to (f) As per the regulations, a customer, who has registered his telephone number for not receiving UCC, may make a complaint about receipt of UCC to his service provider. The service provider from whose network the UCC had originated has to take action on the complaint as per the regulations. However, some of the consumers have also made complaints to TRAI. Since as per the regulations the service providers have to take action on complaints, the same are forwarded to the service providers for necessary action. Since September 2011, based on consumer complaints, the service providers have so far disconnected telecom resources of 18,19,470 Unregistered Telemarketers and blacklisted 5,89,589 such unregistered telemarketers. Also a penalty of Rs. 4,16,45,000/- was deducted from the security deposit of Registered Telemarketers and deposited with TRAI. Further 16 Registered Telemarketers were Blacklisted.

The details of the complaints received in TRAI during the last three years and current year upto 10.7.2019 are given below:
<pre>
Telecom Service Providers 2016 2017 2018 2019
(upto 10.7.2019)
MTNL 0 0 1 0
BSNL 9 8 5 1
Aircel 0 2 1 0
Airtel 51 106 159 70
Idea 18 27 21 6
R-CoMM 3 1 2 0
R-Jio 0 1 15 11
Tata Tele Services 0 4 3 0
Telenor/Uninor 0 0 1 0
Vodafone 80 128 161 67
Total 161 277 369 155

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