New Delhi, Feb. 7: Cellular operators say they support the idea of stopping the practice of cold-calling that telemarketers use to foist products and services on unsuspecting customers with total disregard to their privacy.

The telecom companies say they have done their bit to protect customers by refusing to come out with a directory of telephone numbers like landline phone service providers.

?We are in full support of the Supreme Court?s notice and will offer all cooperation. The observation by the judiciary that such unwarranted calls should be stopped is most welcome,? said T. V. Ramachandran, director-general of the Cellular Operators? Association of India (COAI).

?We would also like to point out that one of the reasons for not publishing the telephone directory as ordered by the telecom regulator was to protect the privacy of customers and not because of the fear of losing customers to competitors. The mobile phone is a very personal gadget and privacy is foremost in the mind of the customer,? said Ramachandran.

On Monday, the Supreme Court sent out notices to the government, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the ministry of law and justice, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and private cellular operators like Hutch, Reliance, Idea, Bharti and multinational banks like Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, HDFC and ICICI Bank on a petition that demanded appropriate legislation to stop the intrusion by telemarketers.

While mobile operators sympathised with their customers who have received a barrage of cold calls from all telemarketers in various guises, the fact remains that mobile companies often get their business associates to call rival telecom subscribers to persuade them to switch over.

Ramachandran came out with a lame defence of this practice: ?We will have to find out who these franchisees are. The operators do not directly resort to such an activity.?

Legal eagles reckoned that the notice would exert pressure on the government to start a process to enact a data protection law. They highlighted the need for establishing a Do Not Call registry as in the US.

Pawan Duggal, a senior advocate and an expert on cyber law, said, ?It is a sad situation where the Information Technology Act 2000 defines the word ?data? but is silent on data protection. Currently, in India, data protection issues are examined under privacy laws that are inadequate.?

The legal experts feel that the telecom regulator or DoT should have acted proactively to deal with the menace.