Hyderabad: Telecom watchdog, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will issue guidelines that would address the problem of unsolicited mobile calls and SMSs later this month, reports PTI.
"We have held consultations on that (unsolicited calls and messaging). We issued a consultation paper also and held an open house discussion. We are finalising our regulation on unsolicited commercial communication. It should be out during the course of this month. We will issue guidelines," Dr J S Sharma, TRAI chairman told media persons on Monday.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had to face an embarrassing situation recently when finance minister Pranab Mukherjee himself got an unsolicited call form a telemarketing company.
A Raja, Union minister for telecommunications and IT immediately instructed the ministry to take steps against such calls that "encroach" into the privacy of telecom consumers.
TRAI's earlier attempts to curb the menace did not yield any results.
The Do-Not-Call registry introduced three years ago by the telecom regulator proved ineffective for various reasons.
"It is true it did not work (Do-Not-Call registry). We are looking at that. I do not want to give any points at this stage. We have to strengthen the do not call registry so that it is efficient and effective. Wait for few days. By the end of this month we will have necessary regulation in the place," Mr Sharma said on the sidelines of a discussion on the consultation paper on national broadband plan.
Replying to question on the BlackBerry issue, he said the TRAI was not consulted on the issue.
Speaking on the broadband plan, he said the TRAI has projected that by 2014, the country will have one billion mobile subscribers.
The idea is that we will be able to reach broadband connections to everybody including all the 220 million basic telephony subscribers, Mr Sharma said.
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