Telecom consultant Mahesh Uppal said: ``Trai has taken the easy way out. It has failed to address the issue of compliance and enforcement. Service providers are just intermediaries. It is not a good idea to penalize them.''

According to Uppal, Trai could have addressed the issue of compliance in a better way by offering consumers an opt-in choice for unsolicited communication rather than the present opt-out. The Times of India was the first to suggest this almost a year ago when Trai introduced the NDNC regulation.

Ideally, Trai must simply list all existing and new mobile numbers under the NDNC registry. At this stage, consumers should have the right to indicate their willingness to receive commercial calls and messages. That is when the consumer can opt out of the NDNC registry.

8.3m Users Signed Up For Do-Not-Call Registry
The national donot-call (NDNC) registry has been operational since October 2007.

Over 8.3 million phone users and about 13,600 telemarketers are registered. The registry is accessed daily by about 600 telemarketers for scrubbing their calling lists. Of roughly 1,522 million numbers uploaded by telemarketers for scrubbing, 1,411 million numbers were cleared by NDNC for calling.

According to Trai, the subscriber must make the complaint regarding any unsolicited communication to the telecom service provider within 15 days of receiving such a call. Trai's amendment to its earlier regulation on unsolicited calls comes into force from the date of its publication in the gazette notification. It comes after a consultation on the amendment on January 16 followed by written responses from stakeholders and subsequent meetings held with service providers, including their associations.

Trai said its objective is to increase compliance and reduce the nuisance and inconvenience to the subscribers of telephone services from unsolicited telemarketing calls and messages.