New Delhi: Troubled by pesky calls and messages, over 130 million mobile subscribers registered with the national do not call registry till Aug 25, said Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora Friday.

"As per the information by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 130.21 million subscribers are registered with National Customer Preference Register (NCPR) as on Aug 25," said Deora in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The national do not call registry has been renamed as NCPR since Feb 10.

TRAI has issued regulations and direction from time to times to prevent pesky calls and messages.

Last year, the telecom watchdog announced a set of new measures to curb unsolicited commercial calls and messages, which were to be implemented from Jan 1. This was extended to March 1 and then to March 21.

The regulations include a fine ranging from Rs.25,000 to Rs.250,000 for the defaulting companies.

Unlike the previous regulation that asked customers to register their numbers in 'do not call' list, the new one allows customers to choose from different categories like 'fully blocked' or 'partially blocked'.

TRAI has disconnected over 72,000 telephone connections of registered telemarketers and over 118,000 of unregistered telemarketing companies for breaching guidelines related to commercial calls and messages up to May 2011.

On an average, approximately 47,454 complaints per month are being registered in this regard. India has over 850 mobile subscribers.

However according to reports, while the number of pesky calls have come down, the messages still remain a menace.

Last month while responding to a volley of supplementaries during question hour in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of Communications Kapil Sibal had said that mobile phone users will be able to get rid of the menace of unsolicited text messages in six weeks when do not disturb number 1909 becomes operational.

 

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