The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has notified new regulations in the benefit of telecom customers wef Sep 27, 2011. This is to regulate unsolicited commercial calls and messages. According to this, customers (either land line or mobile) who do not want to receive commercial communications can register their preference by choosing single, multiple or all categories to be blocked. There are 7 categories defined at present.
Important changes in this new regulations
- Now all commercial calls will come from numbers starting with 140. This is a series specially earmarked for telemarketers.
- No matter whether a consumer has registered or not with NCPR, all commercial calls or SMS will be sent to the customers only between 9 AM and 9 PM.
- Transactional messages (from bank, Airlines, Railways etc) can be sent anytime as and when needed.
- No more than 100 SMS per day per SIM can be sent anyway except on blackout days.
- A subscriber who is already registered in the National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC) is not required to re-register and his said registration
will be valid under the “fully blocked‟ category - A subscriber may make a change in his/her preference at any point of time after 7 days from the date of registration or the date of last change request.
- No amount shall be charged from you for registration or change of preference or de-registration
According to new regulations, customers (either land line or mobile) who do not want to receive commercial communications can register their preference. You can block all categories or choose some selected categories between 7 defined categories for blocking.
The facility can be accessed by dialing 1909 or by SMS to 1909 with desired option(s). 1909 is a toll free service number of National Customer Preference Registry (NCPR). Earlier it was used for Do ‘Not Call Registry’.
There are at present 7 preferences to choose from
1 – Banking/Insurance/Financial Products/Credit Cards
2 – Real Estate
3 – Education
4 – Health
5 – Consumer goods and automobiles
6 – Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT
7 – Tourism and Leisure
Examples
To receive all SMS messages from any category, send SMS START 0 to 1909.
To receive messages relating to only Health products, send SMS START 4 to 1909.
For receiving messages relating to Real Estate and Education, send SMS START 2,3 to 1909.
On successful registration, you will receive an SMS about confirmation of the service. You will also receive a Unique Registration Number within 24 hrs if you are doing this first time. The registration for the service will be effective within next 7 days of placing the request. Registration status can also be checked at NCPR Portal.
Once you have changed or registered your preferences, you can’t alter it within next 7 days. After 7 days, you can again re-exercise for the preferences.
Reference
NCPR Portal