TRAI cracks down on unsolicited commercial calls; urges telecom providers to implement immediate solutions

New Delhi [India], August 6 : In response to increasing consumer complaints about unsolicited commercial calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) convened a meeting with Access Service Providers and their Delivery Telemarketers on August 6. The agenda focused on addressing the pervasive issue of spammers and implementing effective measures to curb this nuisance.
Instances of headers and content templates being misused without the knowledge of the legitimate entities were highlighted. This misuse has led to a surge in unsolicited messages, undermining consumer trust and violating regulatory norms.
The steps taken by Access Service Providers and Delivery Telemarketers to identify and trace the entities responsible for sending such messages were scrutinized. Emphasis was placed on the need for corrective measures to prevent such occurrences in the future.
The control and regulation of promotional calls, including robotic calls, auto-dialler calls, and pre-recorded calls, were thoroughly examined. Discussions centered on the migration of all enterprise business customers to the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform for sending bulk communications in compliance with TRAI regulations.
TRAI called for proactive action from all stakeholders, especially Access Service Providers and their Delivery Telemarketers, to implement technical solutions for traceability and to prevent bulk calling by enterprise customers using 10-digit numbers through Primary Rate Interface (PRI) or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
The regulator conveyed a strong message to service providers and their telemarketers, urging them to take immediate and effective measures to curb bulk communications using voice calls. This includes implementing robust technical solutions and stricter oversight to ensure compliance with regulatory standards.