Crackdown on Spammers: TRAI Introduces Tougher Measures

In light of the evolving tactics employed by spammers and to safeguard consumer interests, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has notified amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018.

Recognising the need for a review, TRAI released the draft amendment regulations in August of last year, seeking public comments. The amendments have been finalised based on stakeholder feedback and internal deliberations.

Some of the key changes introduced by these amendments are as follows:

• Commercial communication categories: The four categories of commercial communications envisaged under the amended regulations include promotional, service, transactional, and government messages. For easy identification, the amendments introduce standardised message headers: “-P”, “-S”, “-T”, and “-G”.

• Opt-out mechanism: Telecom operators are now required to include an opt-out option in promotional messages, enabling consumers to easily modify their preferences and opt out of receiving future communications.

• Time-limited consent: Consent for promotional communication will now only be valid for 7 days. After this period, businesses cannot continue contacting the customer unless fresh consent is obtained.

• Auto-dialer regulation: The amendment regulations address the growing issue of robocalls and auto-dialers, ensuring that businesses disclose their use of such technology, which will be regulated to prevent undue disruption.
• Ensuring traceability of entities: The registration process of the senders and telemarketers will include physical verification of the entity, biometric authentication of the entity’s authorised person, and linking of the entity with a unique mobile number. The said provision was considered necessary to ensure traceability of such entities. Operators are also required to maintain comprehensive records of complaints and sender details, making it easier to track and penalise violators.
• Real-time monitoring: Access providers must now monitor call and SMS patterns, flagging unusual behaviour such as high call volumes and short durations, which are indicative of spam activities.
• Honeypots to be deployed in sufficient numbers: Operators will deploy sufficient honeypots, which are numbers designed to attract and log spam calls and messages, helping to analyse new spam trends.

• Enhanced complaint mechanism: The new amendments introduce several improvements in the consumer complaint process:

• • Simplified reporting: Consumers can now file complaints about spam or UCC calls/messages from unregistered senders without first registering their communication preferences. A complaint will be treated as valid if it includes basic details like the sender’s number, the date of the communication, and a brief description of the UCC voice call or message.
  • Extended window for filing complaints: Consumers can now lodge complaints within 7 days of receiving UCC, up from the previous 3-day window.
  • Mobile app integration: Access providers must make it easier to report spam by integrating complaint registration within their mobile apps and web portals. These apps will auto-capture call logs and SMS details after receiving user consent, further simplifying the complaint process.
  • Faster action: Access providers now have just 5 days (down from 30 days) to take action against UCC senders. Additionally, the threshold for triggering action against senders has been revised, allowing quicker responses to spammers.

• Measures against spammers: The amendments require access providers to suspend all telecom resources of a sender found guilty of repeated violations. For the first violation of the regulatory threshold, outgoing services of all telecom resources of the sender will be barred for 15 days. In case of subsequent violations, all telecom resources of the sender will be disconnected across all access providers for a period of one year and the sender will be blacklisted.
• Bar on using 10-digit numbers for telemarketing: To improve transparency, the use of standard 10-digit numbers for telemarketing is now prohibited. Instead, designated number series will be used: the ‘140’ series for promotional calls, and the newly allocated ‘1600’ series for transactional and service calls.

• Ensuring compliance: The amendments introduce a tiered penalty system that imposes graded financial disincentives on access providers for failure to implement the regulations. Additionally, access providers can require registered senders and telemarketers to make security deposits, which can be forfeited in case of regulatory violations.