To teach telemarketer a lesson, talk on
If you are registered with the NDNCR and still get called by a telemarketer, that entity will be charged at Rs 500 per minute by the service provider, reports Nandini R Iyer.
From Mid-OCTOBER, you can hit back at a telemarketer harassing you on your mobile merely by talking on.
Here is how: if you are registered in the National Do Not Call Registry (NDNCR) maintained by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and still get called by a telemarketer, that entity will be charged at Rs 500 per minute by the service provider.
The registry began functioning earlier this month to conduct the first phase of operations — registration of all telemarketers. Sudhir Gupta, adviser of mobile networks, TRAI, confirmed that the phase of registering telemarketers is on.
“The Department of Telecommunications has issued guidelines requiring all telemarketers to be registered on the NDNCR,” he said. About 5,000 telemarketers have registered two lakh phone lines so far.
Meanwhile, Telecom Ministry sources told HT that the second phase, in which the registry will be open to mobile subscribers, would begin by the month end.
“A formal announcement of the exact date will be made within a week,” a senior official said. “According to the court’s orders, the last date for making it operational is September 6 and we hope to do it before that.”
Subscribers who want to avoid telemarketers need to inform their service provider, who will then register the number with the NDNCR within 45 days.
So, if you register as soon as the service opens, you should get no more calls after mid-October.
The TRAI has stringent guidelines to deal with unscrupulous telemarketers who are not registered with the NDNCR. Just forward the number to the TRAI and the telemarketer’s phone will be disconnected.