The government has disconnected more than 51,000 unregistered telephone connections that were being used for telemarketing purposes in the country till the month of July 2012.

Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora said in the Rajya Sabha in a reply that more than 51,181 telephone numbers that were not registered as telemarketers but were used for telemarketing purpose, have been disconnected by the authorities.

The minister also informed the members of the house that notices have been served to 88,300 subscribers who have carried out violations of the rules. The government’s ‘The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010’ says that any telephone number that is not registered with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as a telemarketer, should not be used for any commercial communication.

The rules say that the service provider issues a notice to the holder of a phone connection that was used for telemarketing without it being registered for the purpose. If the subscriber does not stop telemarketing with the number, then the service provider is allowed to disconnect the connection, under the present laws.

He said, “From the complaints’ data received from service providers, it is seen that the majority of complaints of unsolicited commercial communications are sent by telecom subscribers who were not registered as a telemarketer.”