Trai On Spam Calls

Trai's new message traceability norms go live from Dec 11 and aim to protect users by ensuring OTPs and essential messages are delivered seamlessly, while tackling spam and fraudulent communication

Delhi has seen the highest number of spam calls, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Western Uttar Pradesh. Most spam calls originated in Delhi, with Mumbai and Karnataka next

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) expects to finalise by January, updated and tighter regulations on curbing spam calls and messages after holding extensive discussions on its recent consultation paper, Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti has said. Lahoti further said based on a recent reference from Telecom Department, TRAI will prepare and float a consultation paper on regulatory framework for telemarketers. The TRAI Chief said series of measures taken over the past months by the regulator to combat spam calls and malicious/fraudulent messages is leading to "significant and perceptible clean up of the system" but noted that "more needs to be done". "Our consultation paper was floated in August-end...we have already received comments and counter comments on it and now we will be analysing all the views and hold an open house discussions. It will take about three months for regulations to be finalised... so around January, we will come out with updated regulations on curbing .

Trai's new mandate, set to take effect on November 1, would require traceability of messages sent by principal entities, including banks, e-commerce platforms, and financial institutions

Telecom companies have consistently raised concerns that they are penalised for spam that originates from third-party telemarketers over whom they have little control

Bharti-Airtel has identified over 112 million potential spam calls and 3 million spam short messaging services in Tamil Nadu in the last 12 days of the launch of its AI powered spam detection system, a company official said. The telecom major has established Artificial Intelligence powered algorithm to identify classify calls and SMS as 'suspected spam' and it analyses various parameters based on the customers' usage pattern. By cross-referencing this information against known spam patterns, the system flags suspected spam calls and SMS accurately. "In today's digital landscape spam calls and suspicious texts have become a major concern for customers. To address this, Airtel introduced an innovative AI-powered solution integrated into the Airtel ecosystem. This solution allows users to enjoy its benefits without needing additional downloads or complex set up," Bharti Airtel Tamil Nadu Chief Executive Officer Tarun Virmani said on Wednesday. "This service empowers 29.8 million Airte

Without wasting any more time, the DPDP Act needs to be acted upon with the goal of protecting users' data and thereby minimising fraud

Many entities refrained from sending messages where URLs were not whitelisted, as these would have been blocked by telecom operators

Telecom regulator Trai and the Department of Telecom have jointly disconnected over 1 crore mobile connections to check pesky callers and fraudsters, according to an official statement. The Department of Telecom has blocked 2.27 lakh mobile handsets for their involvement in cybercrime and financial fraud. "Till date, more than 1 crore fraudulent mobile connections have been disconnected with the help of Sancharsaathi. Further, 2.27 lakh mobile handsets have been blocked for involvement in cybercrime /financial frauds," the statement said. To curb the menace of spam calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed telecom operators to disconnect and blacklist entities, using bulk connections for spam calls, including robocalls and pre-recorded calls. "In the last fortnight, over 3.5 lakh such numbers have been disconnected and 50 entities have been blacklisted. In addition, around 3.5 Lakh unused and unverified SMS headers and 12 Lakh content templates are blocke

The telecom regulator maintains that telcos are responsible for controlling unsolicited commercial communications under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations

Trai has introduced new regulations requiring telecom operators to block promotional calls originating from unregistered sources after receiving over 790,000 complaints about spam calls

Currently, spam is classified as "unsolicited commercial communication (UCC)", typically disseminated by UTMs

Certain issues have arisen during the implementation of regulatory framework to protect consumers from unwanted promotional calls, said Ministry of Telecommunications

While the telecom regulator and the govt have tried to check unsolicited calls in the past too, the implementation of the prescribed norms has fallen short of what has been envisaged

Such unregistered callers will be blacklisted for up to two years, the statement said, adding that telecom service providers would need to submit updates on action taken on scam callers

Telecom firms are only allowed to use the 140 series to make calls to consumers, however, unregistered telemarketers continue to use 10-digit phone numbers, making identification a challenge

DoT is also preparing terms of reference for allocation of satellite spectrum

New inter-ministerial panel to coordinate policy, AI-based consent platform in works

In this part of the year-end series, we unravel the web of tele-frauds and spams

In line with its drive to curb spam and pesky messages, TRAI on Tuesday asked banks and other entities sending out commercial messages to telecom subscribers via SMS or voice calls to take "urgent" steps to be onboard Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) system as per stipulated timelines. The DCA has the facility to seek, maintain, and revoke the consent of customers for commercial and promotional messages and calls. The crackdown on spam and pesky messages had seen TRAI issuing direction in June this year to all the access providers to develop and deploy the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) facility for creating a unified platform and process to seek, and register customers' consent digitally across all telecom operators and 'Principal Entities'. "All the Principal Entities' are hereby requested to take urgent necessary steps to be onboard the DCA system as per the timelines prescribed in Direction dated 02.06.2023. For any clarification, information, details in the matter, PEs may