Many of us are sick and tired of those unsolicited calls & SMS. But how do you prevent such communication? TRAI has a clearly laid down procedure for registering your preference.

Many of us are sick and tired of those unsolicited calls & SMS. While there is a Do Not Disturb (DND) option to block all such calls & SMS, some of us might want to keep getting information about banking or other such products. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has a clearly laid down procedure for registering your preference for receiving such commercial communication.

Procedure for Registering your Preference

As a telecom customer, you have the option to either block all commercial calls and SMS or to block only commercial calls while receiving SMS of your choice. For this purpose, you have to register your preference. Preference can be registered by

Dialing toll free number 1909 or

Sending SMS to 1909

You can register for the Fully Blocked category in which No Commercial Call or SMS will be allowed or for the Partially Blocked category. If you opt for the Partially Blocked category, you will not receive any commercial call but will receive SMS on subject(s) that you opt for.

The various subjects in the partially blocked category are the following

Banking/Insurance/Financial products/credit cards Real Estate Education Health Consumer goods and automobiles Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT Tourism and Leisure

Registering Through IVRS or Customer Care

Once you dial 1909, listen to the instructions and choose one of the following for registration of the preference:

Through customer care executive

Through IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System)

You could ask the customer care executive for registration of your preference i.e. whether you would like to register in the fully blocked category or the partially blocked category.

The customer care executive will ask you to exercise your preference if you opt for the partially blocked category. You can opt for one, or a combination of some, or all the subjects. The customer care executive will confirm your preference(s) and register the same. You will get an SMS confirming the preferences exercised by you along with your unique registration number.

Similar process has to be followed for registering your preference through IVRS.

Registering Through SMS

You can register your preference(s) for commercial communications by also sending an SMS to 1909.

The procedure for opting for various categories is the following

To opt for the fully blocked category, send SMS “START 0” to 1909.

To opt for the partially blocked category, send SMS “Start ” to 1909 as below START 1 for receiving SMS relating to Banking/ Insurance / Financial products/Credit cards START 2 for receiving SMS relating to Real Estate START 3 for receiving SMS relating to Education START 4 for receiving SMS relating to Health START 5 for receiving SMS relating to Consumer goods and automobiles START 6 for receiving SMS relating to Communication/ Broadcasting/ Entertainment /IT START 7 for receiving SMS relating to Tourism and Leisure



You can also opt for multiple preferences from categories send SMS START <option1, option2, option3,…> to 1909. For e.g., START 1,2

Please remember that Preference ‘0’ will always suppress other preferences. If ‘0’ is sent with along any other customer preferences, it will be treated as a fully blocked preference. For example, START 0,2,3 will be considered a fully blocked option.

On receipt of an option exercised through SMS, the telecom service provider will send an SMS to confirm the options exercised. You have to send a confirmation SMS so that options exercised are implemented. On getting the confirmation SMS, the telecom service Provider will register your preference and send you an SMS indicating your preferences along with your unique registration number.

Registering a Complaint

If you receive any unsolicited commercial communications seven days after registration of your telephone number through the above method, you can register a complaint by:

Dialing the toll free number 1909 or

Sending an SMS to 1909

Please note that the complaint has to be registered from the telephone number on which unsolicited commercial communication has been received and the complaint must be made within three days of receipt of the unsolicited commercial communication.

You may register a complaint by sending SMS to 1909 in the below format

‘The Unsolicited Commercial Communication, XXXXXXXXXX, dd/mm/yy’

Where XXXXXXXXXX – is the telephone number or header of the SMS, from which the unsolicited commercial communication has been received. The complaint will be registered and acknowledged by the telecom service provider by sending a unique complaint number through SMS. You will be informed of the action taken on your complaint within 7 days of the booking of the complaint.

De-registering from the system

You can de-register from the system by sending a STOP to 1909. You can also change your preference by following the procedure laid down by TRAI.