Lok Sabha Question No. 3928 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-17
Subject: Unsolicited Commercial Communications
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: B. Y. Raghavendra, D.K. Suresh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3928 TO BE ANSWERED ON 17 TH   JULY, 2019

## UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATIONS

## 3928.   SHRI B.Y. RAGHAVENDRA: SHRI D.K. SURESH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (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?

## ANSWER

## 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:

| 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 |

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:

| 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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