<p>Hope of relief from harassment through telemarketing calls seems to be on the horizon. The telecom ministry has promised to take action. It appears that it was when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was interrupted in the middle of an important meeting with Opposition MPs by a call on his mobile offering him a home loan and the incident came to the notice of the telecom ministry that the latter seems to have realised that telemarketers were going too far. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which has failed to come to the rescue of millions of other harassed citizens so far, has decided to finally respond to the finance minister’s plight. Telemarketing calls are not just annoying; they can prove expensive too, especially when such calls are received when one is abroad. TRAI has made some attempts to clampdown on such calls. For instance, it did set up a ‘do not call’ registry. Though the effort did cut down the number of unsolicited commercial calls one received, it did not halt them. Telemarketers have continued to harass through calls and SMSes. It appears that TRAI is now considering creating a ‘do call’ registry instead of the existing ‘do not call’ one. This means that those who want such marketing information delivered to them via mobile would have to register asking for it. Besides, it is considering stern action against mobile operators as they are the ones who have the list of subscribers. Since it is they who are leaking subscribers’ numbers to telemarketers they will have to face the music henceforth. There are suggestions too to impose very hefty fines on mobile operators and telemarketers who persist with these pesky calls.<br /><br />Some are suggesting imposing a ceiling on the number of calls/SMSes from a particular number, wireless or wireline, to force telemarketers to register with the telecom department the objective being that once these telemarketers are registered, their identity becomes known making action under them easier. These are interesting ideas and it remains to be seen whether they work to rein in the aggression of the telemarketers.<br /><br />In the past, TRAI has announced a measure to stop this intrusion into our privacy, this persisting harassment and then done little to follow up with steps to tackle the loopholes. Will the current announcement be yet another instance of raising false hopes? Millions of mobile users across the country are hoping that the ministry will try a little harder to stop the harassment this time.</p>
<p>Hope of relief from harassment through telemarketing calls seems to be on the horizon. The telecom ministry has promised to take action. It appears that it was when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was interrupted in the middle of an important meeting with Opposition MPs by a call on his mobile offering him a home loan and the incident came to the notice of the telecom ministry that the latter seems to have realised that telemarketers were going too far. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which has failed to come to the rescue of millions of other harassed citizens so far, has decided to finally respond to the finance minister’s plight. Telemarketing calls are not just annoying; they can prove expensive too, especially when such calls are received when one is abroad. TRAI has made some attempts to clampdown on such calls. For instance, it did set up a ‘do not call’ registry. Though the effort did cut down the number of unsolicited commercial calls one received, it did not halt them. Telemarketers have continued to harass through calls and SMSes. It appears that TRAI is now considering creating a ‘do call’ registry instead of the existing ‘do not call’ one. This means that those who want such marketing information delivered to them via mobile would have to register asking for it. Besides, it is considering stern action against mobile operators as they are the ones who have the list of subscribers. Since it is they who are leaking subscribers’ numbers to telemarketers they will have to face the music henceforth. There are suggestions too to impose very hefty fines on mobile operators and telemarketers who persist with these pesky calls.<br /><br />Some are suggesting imposing a ceiling on the number of calls/SMSes from a particular number, wireless or wireline, to force telemarketers to register with the telecom department the objective being that once these telemarketers are registered, their identity becomes known making action under them easier. These are interesting ideas and it remains to be seen whether they work to rein in the aggression of the telemarketers.<br /><br />In the past, TRAI has announced a measure to stop this intrusion into our privacy, this persisting harassment and then done little to follow up with steps to tackle the loopholes. Will the current announcement be yet another instance of raising false hopes? Millions of mobile users across the country are hoping that the ministry will try a little harder to stop the harassment this time.</p>