The problem with the Do Not Disturb service is that it doesn’t seem to automatically get cell phone companies to stop disturbing subscribers with promotional calls which are usually automated (meaning that the beleaguered subscriber doesn’t even have the option of giving the person at the other end a piece of his mind if he should want to).

There is, of course, a difference between a service message and unsolicited commercial communication (UCC). The National Do Not Call Registry web site defines UCC as ‘any message, through telecommunications service, which is transmitted for the purpose of informing about, or soliciting, or promoting any commercial transaction in relation to goods, investments or services which a subscriber opts not to receive.’ However, this does not include messages ‘relating to a service of a financial transaction under a specific contract between parties to such contract’.

So, while a call saying that your bill needs to be paid is a service message, a call you receive (almost invariably when you’re busy) promoting some bizarre ring tone is not a service message, and a cell phone company has no right to make such a call to you.

Getting on the Do Not Call Registry can be a royal pain in the neck too. One phone company, for example, asks subscribers to send an SMS to a certain number with a request for the DND service to be activated and says that it takes 45 days for activation. And during those 45 days, consumers not only have to put up with calls from arbitrary companies offering insurance policies but also from the phone company itself.

Calling their customer care at 111, one is told that this is the case because it’s what TRAI guidelines mandate. Apparently, the company has to send the consumer’s phone number to them and only after the number is added to the Registry, can the calls stop.

While this makes sense for calls being made by third parties, it’s difficult to understand why the cell phone company itself should need to wait 45 days. For example, if a girl asked a guy at college to stop phoning her to ask her out, if the guy were to say, “I’ll stop calling after the Principal says so,” the logic behind that statement would be obscure, to say the least. That is effectively what the this company’s customer care says though.

On October 21, 2008, the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communication (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2008 were notified. Under these regulations, service providers which send unsolicited commercial communication are supposed to take action within 28 days of a complaint being filed and inform the subscriber of what action has been taken. While this obviously applies to those who have an active DND service, it isn’t entirely clear whether it applies to those who have merely asked for the service to be activated.

If cell phone companies value customer goodwill, they would probably do well to ensure that it does apply to all their subscribers.