Special No. ‘1037’ soon to lodge telecom grievances

A file picture of 24 hours helpline of Bangalore Electiricty Supply Company at Bangalore. Photo: G. P. Sampath Kumar.

Telecom subscribers across the country can soon register their complaints by dialling a special toll free number ‘1037’.

A subscriber, at present, needs to call customer care centre of the service provider to register a complaint.

Customers can go to nodal officers and finally to the appellate authority in case of unsatisfactory reply.

More often than not subscribers fail to get satisfactory resolution of their grievances.

A note circulated by DoT service providers said short code ‘1037’ has been allocated to the Public Grievances Cell in the Department of Telecom (DoT) headquarters in New Delhi as a telecom consumer grievances helpline.

A ruling of the Supreme Court in 2009 had held that section 7B of the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 barred a consumer from seeking remedy under the consumer act.

The complaint thus remained limited between the subscriber and the telecom company. The new number will bring subscriber grievances into the notice of DoT.

“This number is in implementation stage. The Access Wing has allocated it and given it to the Public Grievances Cell which has now to take it forward,” a DoT official said.