The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a consultation paper on Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) because it says that the earlier Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2010 has failed to definitively curb UCC. Stakeholders can send in their comments by October 12, 2017 and counter comments by October 26, 2017 to advqos@trai.gov.in. This consultation looks at three aspects: a) The current customer preference registration system and how that can be improved to provide customers with greater choices. b) The registration system for telemarketers and content providers and how that can be streamlined to keep a check on them. c) And finally how swift and definitive action can be taken against complaints of unsolicited commercial communication. To begin with, TRAI has identified several shortcomings with the current customer preference registration system, including: The system is not user-friendly (especially the IVRS option). Many customers are still not aware that they can register their preference to not receive unsolicited calls and SMS. It takes up to 7 days for the customer's preference to be updated in the register. Currently, the system doesn't allow bulk registration, such as a family or employees of an organization. There have been instances of customers getting de-registered during the mobile number portability process. Options under the fully blocked (both calls and SMS) and partially blocked (customer can choose to receive SMS) are very broad and don't allow customers to select specific categories of message they would prefer to receive. Note that the Customer Preference Registration Facility (CPRF) is provided by the…
