The measure is expected to benefit about 7.5 million mobile phone users on the registry hosted by the telecom regulator.
Senior Telecom Ministry officials told HT that the move was prompted by complaints from people who found their service provider unsympathetic to complaints against telemarketers.
According to the rules, telemarketers should check all numbers against the registry before calling. When the rule is violated, you have the right to call your service provider and complain. Ideally, the service provider should give you a complaint number and penalise the telemarketer.
However, service providers don't want to lose telemarketers as subscribers. As a result, a subscriber who calls to complain gets no response. HT had last November detailed the harrowing experience of complaining and getting no response.
In addition to penalties, the telecom regulator is also setting up a committee comprising three advisers to look into complaints about service providers who ignore customer complaints.
Source: Hindustan Times January-17-2008
