Telecom operators – Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea – have criticized the new rules by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to curb spam calls and messages.
According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom operators, Trai should have brought delivery telemarketers and over-the-top (OTT) platforms under regulation to manage unlawful communication, and then release the amended rules.
“In the current digital landscape, both OTT communication providers and telemarketers (TMs) have become major stakeholders in messaging, and thus, it would be critical to establish a regulatory framework to ensure accountability from all stakeholders in the ecosystem, including OTT platforms and telemarketers/principal entities,” said SP Kochhar, director general of COAI, in a statement.
Kochhar said Trai should bring these entities under the ambit of the regulation, as it would make no sense to regulate one section of the traffic (telecom operators) while the other section (OTT communication services) has no regulations at all.
According to Trai officials, the regulatory framework around OTTs comes under the ambit of the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY).
Trai last week made key amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018, to curb pesky calls and SMSes. The new rules, which will be implemented in phases – within 30 and 60 days, include easy spam reporting mechanism, new do-not-disturb app, increased penalties on telcos on non-compliance, and opt-out option for users from promotional messages, among key things.
Misreporting the count of spam calls and messages could lead to a penalty of Rs 2 lakh for the first time, Rs 5 lakh for the second, and Rs 10 lakh for subsequent instances, on telecom operators, Trai said.
“At the same time, it is also concerning that the authority has substantially increased the penalty to be imposed over the TSPs (telecom service providers),” Kochhar said.
According to Kochhar, COAI had submitted that financial disincentives on TSPs, being only intermediary in this process, do not serve any purpose and have failed to address the issue in Trai’s all attempts to curb UCC (unsolicited commercial communication).
Instead, if at all these penalties are required, it should be directed to telemarketers or the principal entities who are actual originators and beneficiaries of the commercial communications, he added.
As per Trai’s amended rules, telemarketers could get blacklisted and face disconnection of their telecom resources across all telecom operators for a period of one year on subsequent violations. For the first violation of the regulatory threshold, outgoing services of all telecom resources of the sender will be barred for 15 days.
Senders and telemarketers have also been mandated to undergo physical verification, biometric authentication, and unique mobile number linking during registration, with the telecom operators.
Telecom operators said they have taken ample steps to curb spam calls and messages, but there has been a significant increase in the quantum of unsolicited communications as well as legitimate commercial communication, via OTT communication apps. This is leading to the rise in financial crimes in the country, they said, adding that there should not be any penalties on them.