The Indian telecom Industry with nearly 900 million subscribers is the second largest wireless market in the world. Low tariffs and direct reach to consumers has made SMS and direct calling one of the most cost effective ways of selling services and products. However, telemarketing has brought with it serious issues of invasion of privacy and has become a major irritant to customers.
To holistically curb this growing menace and effectively regulate unsolicited commercial Calls and messages, TRAI has notified "The Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2010". All the provisions of regulations come into force from 27th September, 2011.
Customers (landline and mobile) who do not want to receive commercial communications can dial or SMS to 1909 (toll free) and register in either of the two categories:
Fully Blocked Category- stoppage of all commercial Calls/SMS
Partially Blocked Category- stoppage of all commercial Calls/SMS except SMS from one of the opted preferences
For registering option using SMS, for 'fully blocked category', write "START 0" and send it to 1909. For 'partially blocked category', send SMS 'START' with one or multiple options from the list of seven categories.
There are at present 7 preferences to choose from- Banking/Insurance/Financial Products/Credit Cards-1, Real Estate-2, Education-3, Health-4, Consumer goods and automobiles-5, Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT, Tourism-7.
For example: To receive messages relating to only Health products, then send SMS "START 4" to 1909. Similarly, for receiving messages relating to Real Estate and Education, send SMS "START 2,3" to 1909.
To obtain more information visit: TRAI
