The telecom regulator TRAI today said it will start online registration of telemarketers from January 15.

New telemarketers have to pay registration fee of Rs 1,000 and customers education fee of Rs 9,000, while existing telemarketers just have to pay the customer education fee of Rs 9,000. No part payment is permitted for registration, TRAI said in a statement.

The registration would be valid for a period of three years unless revoked earlier. Other provisions shall come into force from February 1, 2011.

Last year, TRAI had came out with guidelines to stop unsolicited telemarketing calls and SMSes.

TRAI, in guidelines, had said that a hefty penalty of up to Rs 2.50 lakh will be imposed for violation of the telemarketing guidelines, which could be followed by blocking repeat offenders' connections.

A different set of numbers starting with '70' will be issued to telemarketers to help unregistered subscribers identify commercial calls and decide whether to accept or reject such calls.

Unlike the previous guidelines, which only provided for a 'Do Not Call' Registry, the new regulations issued today give customers different options to avoid unsolicited calls.

The subscriber can now choose to be listed under the "fully blocked" category -- which is akin to the 'Do Not Call' Registry -- or the "partially blocked" category, in that case he/she will only receive SMSes in the categories chosen by him/her.

TRAI has identified seven categories for telemarketing calls, including banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods and automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure.