TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti calls for collaborative approach to combat spam calls
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) convened a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) on August 27, to discuss measures for protecting consumers from harms of spam and fraud.
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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti has stressed the need for a joint effort to tackle the problem of spam messages and calls.
He urged the regulators to discuss and enable implementation of whitelisting of URLs, APKs, OTT links and call back numbers to be sent in SMS. Additionally, he urged for the migration of existing telemarketers making promotional calls to 140 series on DLT platform and declaration of entire chain of telemarketers engaged by them for PE-TM chain binding.
Lahoti was speaking during the meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) on August 27, convened by TRAI.
Members of the JCoR, including IRDAI, PFRDA, RBI, SEBI, MoCA, MeitY, and TRAI attended the meeting. Additionally, DoT and MHA representatives were also present in the meeting.
The crackdown on pesky calls has been on high priority for TRAI.
On August 7, Lahoti mentioned that the regulator will review and strengthen regulations to curb pesky, spam calls
"We had an interaction with service providers on spam calls and that is the next thing on our table. We will work seriously...we will plug any loopholes that people are finding on existing regulations to tighten (the checks on) spam call issue," Lahoti said on the sidelines of event organised by Broadband India Forum (BIF).
At the August 27 meeting, JoCR explored potential collaborative efforts and strategies to address unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) and fraud through telecom resources.
In the meeting, the role of entities was discussed in whitelisting of URLs, APKs, OTT links, and call back numbers in the content templates and ensuring the traceability of all the messages from senders to recipients.
It also addressed the issue of entities using PRI/ SIP channels for making unsolicited calls. Many business entities make commercial voice calls using SIP/ PRI lines with hundreds of indicators in violation of TRAI’s regulations. These entities should be migrated to the designated 140 series for making promotional calls.
The meeting further discussed leveraging the DCA system established by telecom service providers to obtain digital consent from consumers.
Use of 160 series by the Entities for making service and transactional calls for easy identification by the consumers - 160 series has been allocated exclusively for Service and Transactional Calls.
A pilot study was commissioned by TRAI and RBI to determine the technical feasibility of various options, and the outcome of the same was discussed.
Emphasis was also given to exchange information available with various regulators on their platforms and for its effective utilisation to control fraud.
By addressing these issues collectively, the JCoR aims to protect consumers from the harms of spam and fraud while ensuring a more secure and efficient telecom ecosystem.
On August 28, TRAI also sought views from stakeholders on whether tariffs can be imposed on telemarketers for voice calls and text messages beyond a certain limit.
TRAI has recently issued directives to access providers to curb misuse of messaging services.
