India Seeks Relief... from Indians

Well, isn't this interesting... it appears as if India is going to set up their own Do Not Call registry by September.

Our problem, as victims of international pharmacy telemarketing, cannot be solved by laws, of course. Besides, this law only applies to calls made within India.

I've noted the deficiencies of legislation as a tool to solve the problem of telemarketing harassment many times in this blog. There's just simply no way to enforce any type of law or regulation concerning telemarketing, given the proliferation of VoIP services, and the international nature of these calls.

However, there is one type of law I would like to see on the books. Remember how carriers complained and moaned about the supposedly huge cost of establishing Local Number Portability? For those who may not remember, LNP forced the cell phone carriers to allow you to take your number between providers. As far as I can tell, the carriers are still in business, so it couldn't have hurt that much.

Well, how about a law forcing carriers to give us the ability to block calls from certain numbers? Since the carriers don't feel any obligation to protect the consumers right to privacy, how about we make them do it?

Until then, I'm very interested to see how this plays out on the other side of the globe:

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government will set up a "do not call" register by September this year to curb frequent, unsolicited calls from companies offering home loans, credit cards and mobile phone services, the government said on Friday.

The court was acting on a public interest litigation filed by a lawyer who complained that such calls were "inconvenient" and violated an individual's right to privacy.

"Irrespective of the subscriber's location and time, professional and personal engagements, cell phone and telemarketing companies keep calling," his petition said.

Many Indians complain of being harassed by telemarketers who offer them house and car loans, credit cards or a new mobile phone service.

"Those who register in the do-not-call registry will not receive unsolicited calls," government counsel P.P. Malhotra told the court, adding the register would start operating on Sept. 5.

India's booming economy over the past few years has led to a surge in mobile phone users, who make an attractive market for banks, insurance firms and mobile service providers.

"These calls can make your day hell," said Namit Shah, a Kolkata-based businessman. "It's about time the government stops this."