There were 130.21 million subscribers registered with the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR) as on 25 August, as per telecom regulator TRAI, Parliament was informed on Friday.

TRAI  had issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, on 1 December, 2010. “This was with the objective - to provide an effective mechanism for curbing unsolicited commercial communications”, minister of state for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, the National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC) came into operation with effect from 12 October, 2007. The main features of the customer preference regulations include filtering of calls and SMSes both by access service providers as well as telemarketers.

Further, in order to ensure effective control, there is provision of security deposit by telemarketers to their access service providers with deduction ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 2.5 lakh in case of a violation.

The customer can opt to block all commercial communication or opt for partially blocked category, Deora said.