Only 25% of even those who were aware of the NDNC had actually registered on it and even that is because 56% of aware Mumbaikars had done so. This may well be an indication that while some people know that such a registry exists, they are not aware of what they need to do to register or how to register.

Trai chairman N Misra seemed unfazed by NDNC's obvious failure. He brushed aside any suggestion of public annoyance over the failure of the NDNC system when he told TOI: ``We have received zero complaints.'' This doesn't tally with even what telecom companies say. Airtel, for instance, said it is receiving close to 1,000 calls a day on NDNC, of which around 10% are complaints.

Asked why the system isn't working, an Airtel spokesman said, ``A database of all telephone numbers registered by telemarketers is necessary to process complaints. Trai is working on providing this database to telecom operators through their website.'' Vodafone, which has 1.7 million customers on NDNC, says it is fulfilling its relationship with the customer by uploading its subscribers' numbers on the NDNC every 15 days.

The company points towards telemarketers as the problem area. ``Telemarketers are supposed to scrub their calling lists against the NDNC list every 30 days and only then make calls. The slips could be at this end,'' suggested Harit Nagpal, Vodafone's marketing director. An Idea Cellular spokesman echoed similar views. ``The process of educating and registering telemarketers is incomplete,'' he said.
Times View

There's a better way out of this mess than trying to make the do-not-call registry work -- have a ``call registry'' instead. In other words, the default option should be that telemarketers cannot make unsolicited calls to subscribers. Those who wish to receive calls can register themselves on the call register. Apart from saving customers harassment, this method has another big advantage. Subscribers can be given the option of choosing what kind of telemarketing calls they want -- from those offering loans, or those selling insurance or real estate options. It will give subscribers freedom of choice. And telemarketers, a genuine target audience.