Everyday a large number of unsolicited phone calls are made by telemarketers to landline and mobile phone subscribers in India. These calls are indeed very irritating at times. To overcome this menace, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has set up a National Do Not Call (NDNC) Registry which is a data base having the list of all telephone numbers of subscribers who do not want to receive unsolicited commercial communication. TRAI has authorised NIC to execute the NDNC Registry project (ndncregistry.gov.in) on turnkey basis to design, develop and implement the project. Any telephone subscriber who does not wish to receive telemarketers' calls can register free of cost on the NDNC Registry through their Telecom Operators (TO). The primary objective of the NDNC Registry is to curb Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC). It also aims to protect the privacy of the customers. For information and detailed definition of what constitutes a UCC, visit ndncregistry.gov.in. ndncregistry.gov.in Modus Operandi On registration of telephone number, the request from the subscriber is be acknowledged within ten days and the telephone number is uploaded to NDNC database by the Telecom Operator (TO) within 45 days of the request. Telemarketer (TM) should verify their calling telephone numbers list vis-à-vis NDNC registry before making any call. A penalty of Rs. 500/- per call/message has been prescribed to discourage TMs from calling phone numbers registered in NDNC Registry. On repeated default, the TMs will be liable to face disconnection of telecom resources. Processes in NDNC I. Telemarketer Registration with DoT The Online Registration Module of TM with DoT involves the following: — TM fills the registration form online, gets the Unique Reference number (URN) — TM submits hard copy of the filled in registration form along with declaration, undertaking and demand draft (DD) of Rs. 1000/- to its primary TO — On receipt of registration form, Primary TO checks the enclosed DD. If the DD is in order the TO logs into the system and issues acknowledgment — The TO verifies TM's telecom resources — On Primary TO's approval, the TM is provisionally registered and gets temporary User ID and Password through email — TO then submits the application along with DD to DoT. After approval by DoT, permanent registration valid for 10 years is issued to the TM II. Registration of Subscriber phone number in NDNC Registry The registration of subscribers for NDNC is done through their respective TOs. The details of call centre number/SMS number on which the registration can be done are given on the NDNC portal as well as websites of respective TOs. Guidelines for Subscriber Registration III. NDNC database Updation by TOs The process of updation of NDNC database by TOs is as follows: — The TOs log into the NDNC using assigned login id and password through VPN connectivity and upload their DNC list in specified format. — If conforms to the format, a log file will be created in the NDNC system, which will timestamp the file received from the TO. This can be referred to in case of a conflict/complaint. — Database scripts will extract data from the received file and store it into temporary tables and acknowledgment will be sent. — On every 15th and last day of the month all the “Do- Not-Call” lists received from TOs will be processed to update the NDNC database. IV. Scrubbing by Telemarketers NIC has prepared a scrubbing module which compares the list of numbers to be called provided by the TMs with the NDNC database and segregates the telephone numbers which can be called from the 'Do-Not-Call' numbers. The process involves: — The TMs upload the caller list for scrubbing by the NDNC System in specified format — If conforms to the format, the caller list is stored in a temporary database with time stamping and are scrubbed against the NDNC database. — As soon as the file is scrubbed, it is available for download and intimation is sent to TM through e-mail. The TM has to log into the NDNC portal and download the file before making any calls Present Status —Registration of TMs started from 16 July, 2007 —Scrubbing of phone numbers by TMs started from 12 October 2007 —7.1 Million Telephones in NDNC Registry as on 31st December 2007. —23500 registered TMs —About 12 to 15 Million numbers scrubbed everyday by TMs Status of Telemarketer Registration NIC has been actively involved in this much needed initiative, right from conceptualisation to actual operation as well as implementation. NIC has completed this project in a record time frame of 3 months. The NDNC Registry has been implemented in only a few countries so far. It is hoped that this initiative will go a long way in protecting the Indian telecom subscribers from the hassles of unwanted commercial calls.