Airtel’s Sunil Mittal says pesky calls blame ‘unfair’

Hoping that the new set of regulations that the sectoral regulator Trai is planning to bring out will put an end to the menace,Mittal said,”many a times we are unfairly blamed” for such trouble to our customers.

Telecom regulator Trai is planning to announce new guidelines to curb the menace of unsolicited calls by imposing hefty penalties on errant telemarketing firms and operators . Besides hefty penalties,the telemarketing firms would be allotted a separate series of numbers beginning with ‘700’ that would allow subscribers to recognise their calls and decide whether to accept or reject them.

“I hope that finally we will have recommendation which are on one hand clearly punitive on those people who hassle our customers and on the other hand force operators to utilise their resources in more careful manner,” Mittal said.

They should not use these free for all SMSs that are flowing across the networks,choking networks,discomforting and creating problems for all the customers,he added.

On mobile number portability,a service which helps subscribers switch operators while retaining the same number,Mittal said,”it is good for the customers and will keep operators on their toes.”