In a new move to combat the growing spam calls and fraud calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued fresh directives which aim at blocking unregistered telemarketers and cutting off their telecom resources. This action follows the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018, and is designed to provide much-needed relief to consumers across the country.
How to block spam calls: New TRAI directives
The latest TRAI directive has further mandated that all Access Service Providers must immediately stop voice promotional calls originating from Unregistered Senders or Telemarketers (UTMs) by using telecom resources such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and PRI (Primary Rate Interface). The main directives include:
Immediate blocking of telecom resources: All promotional voice calls from unregistered senders or telemarketers using SIP or PRI resources must stop immediately.
Disconnect and blacklist offenders: If any unregistered sender is noticed making commercial voice calls that result in consumer complaints, the Originating Access Provider (OAP) will disconnect all telecom resources of the sender for up to 2 years, claims TRAI.
Additionally, the sender will be blacklisted by all access providers for the same duration as well.
Information sharing among providers: Once a sender has been blacklisted, the information will be shared across all the access providers via the DLT platform within 24 hours, which will further ensure that all the resources allocated to the offending sender are disconnected.
No new resources during blacklisting: During the period of blacklisting, no telecom resources will be allocated to the offender by any access provider.
Can these directives finally put an end to spam calls?
For years, Indian consumers have been annoyed, stressed and bombarded by spam calls. These calls are originally originate from the unregistered telemarketers who are using easily available telecom resources.
These calls are often promotional and have become a major source of annoyance over the period. They have been disrupting millions of citizens across the nation. With TRAI’s new directives for spam calls, there is fresh hope that this harassment could finally come to an end.
By cutting off the telecom resources of unregistered telemarketers, TRAI has been tackling the problem at its root. The 2-year ban on resources and blacklisting of offenders ensures that habitual violators will find it much harder to continue their operations.
This move is further expected to pull down the number of spam calls significantly (which annoys the users), especially from the unregistered telemarketers who have evaded detection in the past.
Is this enough to end the spam call harassment?
While these measures are a strong step in the right direction, the question which remains is about their enforcement and effectiveness in the long term.
TRAI’s new guidelines further aim at bringing all unregistered telemarketers under the DLT platform within a month, but ensuring compliance across the telecom industry may be a challenge.
Regular monitoring and strict penalties will also be 0crucial to the success of these regulations.
Furthermore, while blocking telecom resources, you may reduce the number of spam calls, which will be a new way of circumventing regulations could emerge.
Therefore, consumers must remain vigilant and report suspicious calls to help TRAI enforce these rules effectively.
Certainly, TRAI’s latest move is a major and important step towards curbing spam call harassment in India which has been bothering millions of users, who couldn’t help it.
ALSO READ: Instagram update: Now reply to Reels instantly in direct messages
ALSO READ: TRAI’s new rule to BLOCK unapproved URLs in SMS take effect from October 1: What will happen?
