Lok Sabha Question No. 1809 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-09
Subject: Unwarranted Calls/SMS
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: OM PRAKASH YADAV, SUMEDHANAND SARASWATI, SANTOSH AHLAWAT, C.R. CHAUDHARY, P.R. SUNDARAM

## MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1809 TO BE ANSWERED ON 9 th  DECEMBER, 2015

## UNWARRANTED CALLS/SMS

1809.  SHRI OM PRAKASH YADAV:

SHRI SUMEDHANAND SARSWATI:

SHRIMATI SANTOSH AHLAWAT:

SHRI C.R. CHAUDHARY:

SHRI P.R. SUNDARAM:

Will  the  Minister  of  COMMUNICATIONS  AND  INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  taken  note  that  inspite  of  instructions  from  the Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI),  mobile  consumer  continue  to  get unwarranted/Pesky calls/SMSs even after their registration with Do-Not-Call- Registry;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the complaints received in this regard during the current year operater-wise;
- (c) whether  the  guidelines  made  by  TRAI  are  not  followed  in  this  respect  by  the Telecom service Providers and telemarketers;
- (d) if so, the action taken by the Government against the service providers and the tele-marketers and the penalties imposed on them; and
- (e) the  alternative  plan  proposed  by  the  Government  including  the  proposal  to review the norms/guidelines to check this problem?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) to (c) Madam, TRAI has laid down the framework for controlling Unsolicited  Commercial  Communications  (UCC)  through  the  'Telecom  Commercial Communications  Customer  Preference  Regulations,  2010'.  These  regulations  have been  reviewed  from  time  to  time.  These  regulations  prohibit  sending  of  UCC  by telemarketers/ subscribers to telecom consumers, who have registered their numbers in the  National  Customer Preference Register (NCPR) for not receiving UCC. TRAI has been  monitoring  complaints  lodged  by  consumers  regarding  receipt  of  Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) through the TRAI portal (www.nccptrai.gov.in) set up under the framework of these regulations. In-spite of issue of these regulations, there has  been  violations  by  telemarketers  leading  to  complaints  relating  to  receipt  of unsolicited commercial communications. The complaints received by service providers during  the  current  year  upto  30.11.2015  have  reduced  to  95,286  as  compared  to 1,46,027 complaints received during the year 2014. Further, it is also seen that most of these complaints relate to UCC originated by unregistered telemarketers. The details of operator-wise complaints received during the current year are attached as Annexure-I.

Contd……..2/-

- (d) During  the  current  year,  in  80  cases  registered  telemarketers  have  been penalized and security deposit of Rs. 61.47 lakhs have been recovered from them. As regard violations by unregistered telemarketers, around one million telephone connections have been  disconnected. Further, 3,09,213 subscribers have been blacklisted  and  they  will  not  be  able  to  get  any  telephone  connections  from  service provider for two years.
- (e) TRAI has been frequently reviewing the implementation of these regulations and has issued 16 amendments to these regulations to make the regulatory framework more effective  and  stringent.  For  addressing  UCC  violations,  TRAI  has  taken  the  following steps:
- (i) Minimum charges of 50 paisa per SMS sent beyond 100 SMS per day per SIM to discourage the misuse of bulk SMS packs by telemarketers.
- (ii) To  restrict  unregistered  telemarketers  from  sending  bulk  promotional  SMSs using  software  applications,  Access  Providers  have  been  mandated  to put  in place  a solution, which will ensure that no commercial SMSs are sent having same or similar characters or strings or variants from any source or number. The  solution  will  ensure  that  not  more  than  200  SMSs  with  such  similar 'signature' are sent in an hour.
- (iii) Disconnection of telecom resources of the offending subscriber on receipt of a valid complaint and  blacklisting of  the  name  and  the  address  of  such subscriber.
- (iv) Disconnection of all telecom resources of such subscriber, upon blacklisting, by all other service providers.
- (v) Disconnection of telecom resources of agencies or individuals for whom UCC has been solicited through unregistered telemarketers.
- (vi) For increasing consumer awareness, Access Providers have been mandated to send SMS to all customers on periodic basis, advising them not  to send any commercial communications and informing about the consequences of misuse.
- (vii)  The Access Provider is required to take an undertaking from the new customer in  the  Customer  Acquisition  Form  that  the  connection  will  not  be  used  for telemarketing purpose failing which it shall be liable to be disconnected.

Further,  there  is  also  provision  of  financial  disincentives  on  telecom  service providers in the regulation, which provides the Financial Disincentive on telecom service providers for the following:

- (i) For failure to prevent Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) originated  from  the  service  providers  network  by  subscribers  who  are  not registered with TRAI as a telemarketer- The Service Provider shall pay up to a maximum of Rs. 5,000/- financial disincentive for each valid complaint and
- (ii) For  contraventions  of  the  provisions  of  the  regulations  -  Rs.  1  Lakh  first contravention, Rs. 5 lakhs for second contravention and Rs. 10 lakhs for third and each subsequent such contravention.

In  accordance  with  the  above  provisions,  TRAI  has  been  imposing  financial disincentive on telecom service providers.

Contd…….3/-