From April 30, the National Do Not Call Registry will be operational, a system by which users will be able sign up to avoid phone calls from unknown numbers where cell phone promotions, credit or debit cards or discounts on any service are offered.
Register was created by article 181 of the Accountability 2020 and entered into force on January 1, 2022. However, the government had a period of up to 120 days to regulate it and In the next few days, President Luis Lacalle Pou will be signing the decreereported to The Observer the National Director of Telecommunications, Guzmán Acosta y Lara. The record will be in the orbit of the Communication Services Regulatory Unit (Ursec).
“We see this as a user’s right not to be disturbed and also We penalize the abusive use of the telephone medium for promotions, sales and services of any kind”, explained the hierarch.
How it will work for users
The interested parties, who are titular users of a telecommunications service, may express to their company (Antel, Claro or Movistar) the desire not to be contacted. To start the process, companies will have various commercial channels, both digital and face-to-face. Within five daysthese companies must send Ursec a list with the numbers of the service holders who said they did not want to receive the calls.
“This is not a public record. The idea is to preserve the data of people who request not to be disturbed. The telecommunications companies are going to send only the telephone number”, explained Acosta and Lara.
Do not call registration not only includes calls to cell phones or landlines but also includes text messages (SMS) and communications through platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegramso those who offer services that the user does not want they will not be able to communicate either by those means; heyou emails they are not included.
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How should companies act?
The users may report if there is a breach of the law. In the event that a company does not respect these cases, the situation will be evaluated by the Ursec, “who will be able to apply the sanctions that it deems pertinent”, according to article 181.
As explained by Acosta and Lara, companies interested in carrying out advertising campaigns they must register with Ursec free of charge in order to consult the Do Not Call Registry of the three telecommunications companies.
this record It will be updated every 30 days, so those interested in launching campaigns should review the list to see which new users have joined or which have unsubscribed.
Regarding users in general and who have chosen not to sign up for the Do Not Call registry, the decree establishes a time slot in which the call centers can contact you.
“They cannot call you at any time, they can do so from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Sundays or night hours would not be enabled unless they expressly have the authorization of the person to be disturbed at those times”, clarified Acosta and Lara.
On the other hand, advertising campaigns should be done from an identifiable number. “You cannot call from an unknown number and They must indicate to which company they belong and by whom they are in charge of carrying out such an advertising campaign.”, said the head of the National Directorate of Telecommunications (Dinatel).
The law exempts from this registry “the calls from those who have a current contractual relationship, as long as they refer to the strict purpose of the link“, so the telephone companies will be able to contact their client to offer them a new mobile phone contract when it is about to end or commercial banks will also be able to continue sending their card promotions to their clients.
