Rogue robocallers behind Trai's bid to dial up rules against spam

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai’s) latest push to review its existing spam regulations and expand the definition of “commercial communications” is driven by an urgent need to tighten controls on autodialers or robocallers, and bulk messaging, according to official sources.

This move, they said, comes in response to a surge in complaints against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs), which soared to 750,000 in just the first half of 2024, underscoring the necessity for a comprehensive overhaul of the government’s anti-spam measures.

Last week, Trai released a consultation paper aimed at revisiting the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018), the government’s legal framework against spam. Currently, spam is classified as “unsolicited commercial communication (UCC)”, typically disseminated by UTMs.

 

“While the existing regulations have been effective in reducing complaints against registered telemarketers, an overhaul is essential to eliminate spam originating from UTMs,” a Trai official stated. 

The Trai official highlighted that complaints lodged with telecom operators against these rogue callers ballooned to 1.22 million in 2023, up from 307,000 in 2020.

 

India currently has around 16,000 registered telemarketers (RTMs), and telecom operators are required to take action against UTMs by issuing warnings, imposing “usage caps” on the number of calls and messages they can make each day, or disconnecting services for repeat offenders. After a third violation, telemarketing connections can be disconnected for up to two years and the entities blacklisted.

According to Trai statement on Tuesday, telecom operators have blacklisted over 50 entities and disconnected more than 275,000 mobile numbers of various kinds.

A growing number of entities have started making promotional calls using 10-digit mobile or landline numbers, often relying on autodialers or robocalls to circumvent regulatory provisions. Data collected by Trai for the fourth quarter (January-March) of FY24 shows that 85.3 per cent of SIM (subscriber identity module) cards in the country made fewer than 10 calls on average each day. In contrast, just 136 SIM cards were responsible for making between 500 and 1,000 calls daily and only four SIMs were making over 1,000 calls — an average of 30,000-plus calls per month.

The disparity is even more pronounced for text messages. During Q4FY24, 111 million SIMs, representing 95 per cent of the telecom user base, sent one or fewer texts per day. However, 47,427 SIMs, or 0.004 per cent of the user base, were responsible for sending more than 100 texts per day.

In its consultation paper, Trai proposed mandatory user consent for automated calls and prior notification to telecom operators when using autodialers or robocallers for commercial communications. “We have also suggested that pre-recorded voice calls should adhere to an approved content template, given the prevalence of frauds in this category and the harassment of ordinary citizens,” another official added.

Under the current regulations, customers can block all promotional communications and manage the receipt of transactional communications. The regulator is considering further strengthening these measures.