The government has taken steps to protect consumers from annoying calls and spam messages. Users can block commercial communications in specific categories or altogether, as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Regulations and Actions Taken
TRAI issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018). Mobile companies reported taking action against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) from April 2020 to September 2023.
This included issuing warning notices in 11,06,920 cases for first-time violations and disconnecting 74,113 telephone connections for repeated violations. TRAI also imposed financial penalties totaling Rs. 109.92 crore.
Usage caps were imposed in 7,90,843 cases during complaint investigations. Additionally, caps were enforced for six months in 1,92,816 cases for second-time violations, said Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for Communications.
Blacklisting and Spam Calls
Chauhan stated that since 2019, over 20 telemarketers, around 500 principal entities (PEs), over 3,000 SMS headers, and more than 40,000 content templates have been blacklisted for sending phishing SMS or Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC).
Response to Rise in Spam Calls
Responding to Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s query about the increase in spam calls, Chauhan mentioned that telecom service providers (TSPs) have temporarily deactivated over four lakh headers and more than 11 lakh content templates to prevent promotional messages from unregistered telemarketers.
Safety Measures
Chauhan emphasized the government’s commitment to telecom users’ safety and security. Measures include strengthening the Know Your Customer (KYC) framework, verifying each Point of Sale (PoS) indisputably, blacklisting non-compliant PoS, and re-verifying all users enrolled by non-compliant PoS.
The impact of these measures includes disconnecting 55.52 lakh mobile connections based on fake/forged documents, resolving 27 lakh requests under the ‘Know Your Mobile Connections’ facility, reporting and disconnecting 13.42 lakh suspected mobile connections failing re-verification.
Additionally, efforts included tracing and blocking of 5.60 lakh lost or stolen mobile phones, and the recovery of 63,548 mobile phones by State Police for return to citizens.