TRAI meet with telecom companies on pesky marketing calls, messages on March 27

Unsolicited Commercial Communication is a major source of inconvenience to the public and impinges on the privacy of individuals, the regulator noted. (IE)

TRAI is scheduled to meet telecom companies on March 27 on the development and implementation of Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) detect solutions, as the regulator continues its offensive against pesky marketing calls and messages.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) further said that the exploitation of the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) platform to bring all access providers (telcos) together with respect to UCC detect solutions will be a positive step in this direction.

The formulation of a framework for sharing of UCC data detected by access providers on DLT platform, strict action on Principal Entities and Registered Telemarketers for non-compliance of Regulation, use of AI/ML-based anti-phishing system, implementation of RegTech solution on DLT platform for promotional Voice calls, implementation of Digital Consent Acquisition and updates of the ‘Regulatory Sandbox’ established for UCC Detect will be discussed in the meeting.

“As part of a multipronged approach to address this problem through technical solutions, regulations, directions and close monitoring a meeting with all access providers on the development and implementation of UCC detect solutions by them will be held under the chairmanship of P.D Vaghela, Chairman TRAI…on 27th March 2023,” TRAI said in a statement on Wednesday.

Unsolicited Commercial Communication is a major source of inconvenience to the public and impinges on the privacy of individuals, the regulator noted.

To curb the menace, TRAI issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR) on July 19, 2018, which put in place a framework for controlling pesky, unsolicited marketing calls and messages. The regulations came into force with effect from February 28, 2019.

With its implementation in a coregulatory manner with support from all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), an ecosystem based on blockchain (Distributed Ledger Technology-DLT) has been created.

Further to the Joint Committee of Regulators meeting held in February 2023 under the chairmanship of Vaghela, there has been a consistent focus and drive to implement UCC detect solutions in order to control spam on telecom networks.