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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday floated a consultation paper related to unsolicited commercial calls (UCC) and messages underlining the need to review and put in place provisions like regulating tariff for SMS and voice calls to curb such calls from Unregistered Telemarketers (UTMs).
“As the complaints against UTMs are increasing, it is a possibility that UTMs may be using unlimited voice call package tariff offers of the service providers to push large number of promotional voice calls to consumers using multiple connections,” it said.
The availability of an alternate path for pushing large quantum of messages/calls by UTMs using 10-digit numbers defeats the purpose and framework envisaged under Telecom Commercial Communication Customers Preference Regulation (TCCCPR-2018), TRAI said in the consultation paper titled Review of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018.
In July 2018, TRAI had notified TCCCPR-2018 to deal with UCC which came into effect from February 28, 2019. The adoption of distributed ledger technology (or blockchain) has been mandated under TCCCPR-2018 regulations to ensure regulatory compliance while allowing innovation in the market. TCCCPR-2018 also mandated the deployment of a UCC detect system to identify and curb UCC activities by UTMs.
Given the comprehensive nature of the regulatory framework outlined in TCCCPR-2018, it was decided to do away with tariffs of SMS beyond 100 messages per sim per day. Therefore, vide Telecommunication Tariff (65th Amendment) Order, 2020, the Schedule related to tariffs in respect of SMSs above the limit of 100 SMSs per sim per day was deleted and the “tariff of transactional message (P2P) was brought under the purview of Tariff forbearance”, TRAI said.
“However, of late there has been a surge in complaints of UCC/ spam using telecom resources such as SMS and voice platforms. Incidences of UCC using telecom resources have become a cause of concern requiring urgent action by all the stakeholders,” it said in the paper.
TRAI further said that the UTMs continue to evolve dynamic modus operandi to stay ahead of checks being placed by the authority, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), access providers and other agencies.
“Comprehensive regulatory provisions, in addition to the cross-sector cooperation among regulators and other stakeholders, become sine qua non to tackle the menace of UCC that is increasingly being used for spam. In other words, a multi-pronged approach is required to tackle the menace of UCC,” it said.
Therefore, TRAI through this consultation paper is seeking comments from stakeholders for curbing UCC. Some of the issues it has asked for inputs include: What effective steps can be taken to control the menace of UCC through tariffs?; whether differential tariff for SMS and voice calls beyond a certain limit should be introduced to disincentivise UCC through UTMs; and what could be the limit beyond which differential tariff could be introduced for voice calls and SMS.
The authority has sought for written comments on the consultation paper by September 25, and counter comments if any, by October 9.
Published on August 28, 2024
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