No relief from pesky calls for mobile users

The Telephone Regulatory Authority of India has once again put off a final decision on steps to end unwanted calls – this time to 1 February. Earlier, it had promised to take steps on this irritating issue by the end of the year.

On December 1, 2010, the TRAI had come out with guidelines on unsolicited telemarketing calls and SMSes, to be implemented from 1 January 2011.

According to reports, telecom operators will delay the implementation by a month's time because of the endless 'security concerns' continually raised by various arms of the union government. The registration of the telemarketers and subscribers will start from 15 January, according to latest reports.

The industry says telecom operators need time to meet contractual obligations with various telemarketing companies, for which they require at least four months. They say that is the reason they are seeking more time to implement TRAI guidelines on pesky calls.

''We have approached TRAI to give telecom operators some more time to comply with the necessary security concerns and also that they can set-up their infrastructure to filter the calls in order to stop unsolicited telemarketing calls,'' GSM mobile operators' association COAI Director general chairman Rajan S Mathew told news agency PTI.

Industry playes added that telecom operators have approached TRAI and the department of telecom (DoT) to seek up to four months' extension in order to set-up proper infrastructure that can be put in place to stop the telemarketing calls.