Bharti Airtel urges TRAI to regulate WhatsApp, other OTT platforms to tackle spam

Bharti Airtel has urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to expand its regulatory framework to include over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram to curb rising spam, reports Moneycontrol.

In a letter addressed to TRAI secretary Atul Kumar Chaudhary, Airtel's vice-chairman and managing director, Gopal Vittal, proposed several measures to regulate OTT messaging platforms.

These include extending the digital consent acquisition (DCA) framework to OTT platforms, enforcing Know Your Customer (KYC) verification for users, and integrating these platforms into a centralised spam blacklist system.

"While regulatory efforts have significantly reduced spam and unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) over SMS and voice, fraudsters are increasingly shifting to OTT communication platforms, which currently operate with minimal oversight," Vittal stated in the letter.

While TRAI has tightened anti-spam regulations under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018, the rules do not extend to OTT messaging services.

This gap in oversight, telecom operators argue, has led to a surge in spam calls and messages via OTT platforms, resulting in an uptick in financial fraud.

Major private telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, have raised concerns over TRAI's recent spam-control measures, asserting that these do not adequately address the root of the problem—OTT platforms, the report added.

During TRAI's open house consultation, industry stakeholders called for the inclusion of OTT communication services under the regulatory framework, citing increases risks of phishing, fraud, and security breaches.

In a statement issued on February 17, telecom operators also voiced their discontent over the hefty fines imposed for non-compliance with the new spam regulations.

Under the revised framework, telecom companies could face penalties starting at Rs 2 lakh for an initial violation, escalating to Rs 5 lakh for a second offence and Rs 10 lakh for subsequent breaches. Persistent non-compliance could even result in service suspensions.

Operators contend that the onus of controlling spam should lie primarily with telemarketers rather than telecom providers, who merely facilitate communication.

TRAI officials have clarified that the regulation of OTT platforms falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which has been notified of the telecom sector’s concerns.

Airtel has also called for global standards to prevent calling line identification (CLI) spoofing—a common fraud tactic used to manipulate caller IDs.