TRAI cracks its whip against pesky callers, sends directives to telecom operators

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed telecom operators to disconnect and blacklist businesses using bulk connections for spam calls, including computer generated and pre-recorded voice calls from all Unregistered Senders or Telemarketers. The entities can be blacklisted for up to two years, and won't be allocated any new resources by telecoms.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the telecom regulator with the regulatory heads of all telecom service providers (TSPs). The meeting was attended by the Chief Regulatory Officers of Airtel, BSNL, Quadrant Televentures Limited (QTL), Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices Limited, Vodafone Idea Limited, and V-CON Mobile & Infra Private Limited.

As per the directions by TRAI, All promotional voice calls from the unregistered Senders/ Unregistered Telemarketer (UTMs) using Telecom Resources (SIP/ PRI/ other telecom resources) shall be stopped immediately; if any unregistered Sender/ Unregistered Telemarketer (UTM) is found to be misusing its Telecom Resources (SIP/ PRI/ other telecom resources) for making commercial voice calls in violation of the regulations resulting into consumer complaints.

The sender can attract penal action such as the telecom resources of such Sender shall be disconnected by the Originating Access Provider (OAP) for a period up to two years, such sender shall be blacklisted by the GAP for a period up to two years and information regarding blacklisting of the Sender shall be shared by the GAP with all other Access Providers on DLT platform, within 24 hours, who will, in turn, disconnect all the telecom resources given by them to that Sender within the next 24 hours;

Moreover, no new telecom resources shall be allocated to such Sender by any Access Provider during the period of blacklisting as provided for in the regulations; while all the unregistered Senders/ Unregistered Telemarketers (UTMs) using SIP! PRI/ other telecom resources to make commercial voice calls to the citizen shall be migrated to the DLT platform within one month of the issue of this Direction and submit compliance report within seven days thereafter;

All Access Providers have been directed to comply with these directives and submit regular updates on the actions taken on the 1st and 16th of every month.