CHENNAI : Following up on the article on "Do Not Disturb" (DND) option for phone users published this Sunday under the heading "Mobile subscribers tormented with spam," The Hindu spoke to representatives of telecom companies on the modalities followed while sending SMSs and calls promoting `value-added services'.

All the companies maintained that they were following the guidelines issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and were well within the limits set. There are questions though whether the service providers themselves send out the SMSs or voice calls; or whether the content partners do it in their names.

An Airtel spokesperson from New Delhi said they had a stringent privacy policy that regulated the frequency of promotional communication sent out to post-paid and pre-paid customers. Specific counters are maintained for each unique Airtel customer and strict processes are in place to ensure that they are not violated. They also had a privacy policy to ensure the subscribers don't get disturbed at odd times.

The spokesperson claimed they promoted their `DND' feature frequently with customers. On mobile broadcasts, where the subscriber's mobile phone screen is used to display promotions, the spokesperson said it was the least intrusive form of advertising. While SMS goes into the mobile inbox and occupies phone memory, cell broadcasts remained in the background.

He added that all communications taken up by the company were within the bounds of the privacy policy published on their website (www.airtel.in) . In Chennai alone, Airtel has over 11,000 customers on the DND list.

Aircel Chennai said the company was doing its best to restrict the number of promotional SMSs sent to subscribers. A representative said the company was willing to receive requests from subscribers for availing the DND service either through their customer care service (98410 12345) or through the official website www.aircel.com. The DND feature on the website was placed on the lower half of the page and is revealed only after a flash animation advertisement runs.

Reliance Infocomm Chennai said the company followed TRAI guidelines with regard to sending promotional SMSs and calls.

Subscribers wishing to get listed on the DND registry could call up the customer care by dialling *(asterisk) followed by 333 from a Reliance mobile or 3033 3333 while calling from another service provider; the second option would be to fill up the form on their official website; they could also fill a DND application from Reliance Webworld outlets.

Hutch's customer call centre representatives said had they earlier discontinued an option wherein subscribers could simply send an SMS with the acronym `DND' to 123 to get into the Do Not Disturb registry. Now Hutch subscribers will have to either call "Hutch Care" (98840 98840) or go to their website (www.hutch.in) .

A senior executive of the marketing department of BSNL in Chennai said the company did not do a lot of promotions through SMSs or voice calls and hence did not find the need for a DND registry. He said they only sent out "payment due" alerts and some social messages, as requested by the government, to their subscribers. By and large, he claimed that the company refrained from bulk messaging.

A senior Tata Indicom executive in Chennai said they did not have a DND service currently. However their website's homepage did provide a link that was not working. He said they had not received any complaints from subscribers and promised to provide more details on Tuesday.

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