Through these amendment, the Authority is proposing to levy a charge of Rs. 500/- per telecom resource for reconnection of the telecom resources of entities on whose behalf commercial transaction were found to be solicited by their agents, but have subsequently taken corrective measures to the satisfaction of the Authority.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation, 2010 (6 of 2010) dated the 1st December, 2010 to provide an effective mechanism for curbing Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). These regulations have been amended from time to time to tighten the regulatory framework.
One of the major provisions of The TCCCP (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2013, which was issued on 22nd August, 2013, is disconnection of all telecom resources, after second notice, of entities on whose behalf commercial transactions have been solicited.
Some of these entities have represented to the Authority requesting for re-connection of their disconnected resources as per the provisions of regulation 19A of the TCCCP Regulations, 2010.
In cases, wherever the Authority was satisfied with the various measures taken by these entities (or by their channel partners, dealers, agents etc.), the Authority had ordered reconnection of disconnected telecom resources of such entities, except the resources which were used for originating UCC.
The Authority feels that apart from reconnection of telecom resources, there should be further deterrent against misuse of telecom resources for soliciting business apart from meeting administration costs. Therefore, it is now been proposed through these regulations to levy a reconnection charge of Rs.500/- per telecom resource, subject to a maximum of Rs.5,00,000/-, from these entities.
The draft ‘The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Fifteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2014’ have been placed on TRAI’s website (www.trai.gov.in) for the comments of stakeholders. Stakeholders are requested to submit their comments by 12th February, 2014 on e-mail: advqos@trai.gov.in
