The Hindu : Business : Soft launch of NDNC shortly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007
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Business

Soft launch of NDNC shortly

Sandeep Joshi

Over 60-lakh telephone subscribers have enrolled with the Registry

Mobile operators have to tell their customers about the Registry
Details about the registry can be found in DoT websites

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is all set for the soft launch of the National Do Not Call (NDNC) Registry.

Over 60-lakh telephone subscribers across India have already got themselves registered with the NDNC Registry set up by the Department of Telecommunications to check telemarketers from making unsolicited telemarketing calls.

“Within the next two-three days we will be sending the list to a few telemarketers for scrubbing the list of those registered with the NDNC Registry. These telemarketers will prepare their database and make sure that registered subscribers do not get any telemarketing calls. The soft launch is being done to test the system and rectify any loopholes or snags in activating the new mechanism,” TRAI’s Advisor (Mobile Network) Sudhir Gupta said.

The registration work started about two weeks ago and as per TRAI’s regulations, telemarketing calls to registered subscriber have to be stopped after 45 days of registration.

“There is still some time left for the process to be launched formally. We are gearing up for it. The formal launch will be done next month,” Mr. Gupta said.

The registration of both subscribers and telemarketers was an ongoing process and more and more subscribers were registering with the NDNC Registry, Mr. Gupta added.

Though the number of subscribers who have got themselves so far is less compared to over 24-crore phone subscribers across India, including 20-crore mobile subscribers, TRAI hopes that within the next few months this number will swell as people get aware about the NDNC Registry.

Interestingly, in the four metros where the problem of unsolicited telemarketing calls is more rampant, the phone subscribers are still to come up in large numbers to get themselves registered with the NDNC registry.

It was mainly the subscribers in the metros who first sought a mechanism to rein in telemarketers and asked setting up the registry.

“We have asked mobile operators to tell their customers about the registry and the way they can get themselves registered. Details about the registry can be found in DoT websites and soon information about the NDNC registry will be available in the websites of service providers and through their call centres,” Mr. Gupta said.

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