Currently, the only other option that a consumer has is to take the operator to court, which most customers are hesitant to do due to the complications associated with legal battles.

Meanwhile, the regulator will also meet the two telecom industry bodies - Cellular Operators Association of India and the Association of Unified Service Providers of India - next week over a demand by the industry that they be allowed to charge subscribers for calls made to customer care outlets. At present, all calls made to the customer care, or call centres run by the operator are free.

"Operators have told us that a significant majority of calls that mobile users make to customer care are for enquiry purposes and not related to grievances. Since running these call centres and offering customer care involves a huge cost, they want consumers to pay for this service," the Trai official quoted above said.

ET spoke to mobile service providers who confirmed that the industry had jointly sought Trai's approval to charge consumers for calls to the customer care, if they were not related to grievances/complaints.

But Trai officials are divided on the demand by telcos. "We do not have any mechanism to determine if a call to the customer is for a complaint, enquiry or for other purpose. Interpretations can vary. We want to give telcos a hearing on this issue," another Trai official added.

Trai is also planning to junk the Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry as this has failed its purpose of ensuring that telemarketers do not make unsolicited calls or send SMSs to those enlisted in the DNC. Instead, the regulator plans to explore the option of setting up a `Do-Call' registry, where only registered users would be called by telemarketing firms.