CONSUMER WATCH
‘Do not call’ rules apply to mobile phone cos too ……..Rucha Biju Chitrodia
Even if a cellphone user lists his number on the National Do Not Call (NDNC) registry and the pesky telemarketing phone calls and SMSes actually stop, his woes may still be far from over.
Recently, a Mumbai resident received three pre-recorded promotional calls in the span of an hour. The difference here is that the calls peddled the telecom service provider’s own value-added services such as caller tunes, ringtone downloads and missed call alert facility. “Cellular operators typically utilise automated outcalling technologies to intimate customers about services that require a voice interface like music, caller tunes and so on,” says an industry official.
So, do NDNC registry regulations apply to promotional calls generated by content providers on behalf of service providers themselves? They do, says an official at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). “Service providers are not supposed to make promotional calls. If I get a pre-recorded message, it amounts to (such) a call.”
The NDNC registry website defines unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) as “any message, through telecommunications service, which is transmitted for the purpose of informing about, or soliciting or promoting any commercial transaction in relation to goods, investments or services which a subscriber opts not to receive”. However, the definition excludes any message—other than a promotional one—“relating to a service or financial transaction under a specific contract between the parties to such contract”. In other words, if a call is over outstanding bills, it amounts to a service message. But if a call offers subscription to a new service, it falls under the UCC category.
Probably, it is time the telecom regulator further clarified the demarcation between “service” and “promotion”. For, an industry official says if a service provider sends across details of a value-added service and a new tariff package, in keeping with the subscriber’s usage pattern, such a communication would not amount to UCC. Another industry official adds that such calls help people with a language issue, who would otherwise have trouble understanding promotional SMSes. They help consumers make an informed choice about a best-suited service or tariff plan.
Evidently, not everyone is comfortable with these promos, which sound like pre-recorded audio advertisements. Consumers are advised to call their service providers’ helplines to deactivate this “service”. Fortunately, the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2008, notified on October 21, address this concern. They direct service providers who find that an unsolicited commercial communication originated from their own network to take action within 28 days from the day a complaint is filed. The consumer must then be intimated about the action taken.