New Delhi: The Union Government has woken up to the pesky calls menace and set up a Committee to draft guidelines to address the issue of such promotional or unsolicited commercial calls received by consumers.
Pesky, promotional and unsolicited commercial calls violate the consumers’ privacy and rights, Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), said today. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution identified the financial services sector and real estate sector as the major sectors from which such calls were received.
DoCA has constituted a Committee comprising members from the cellular industry, regulatory bodies such as the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), the Department of Financial Services(DFS), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Reserve Bank of India, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), the Department of Financial Services(DFS), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Cellular Operations Association of India (COAI), telemarketing companies, VCOs to draft the Guidelines.
Under the Chairmanship of Secretary DoCA, Rohit Kumar Singh, the Department convened a meeting on February 14, 2024, to discuss the issues related to pesky/promotional/unsolicited commercial calls.
In the meeting, it was also pointed out that spam callers are now switching to internet calls, especially using WhatsApp to lure customers into Ponzi schemes, and crypto investments and offer job opportunities.
To address the issue related to spam messages and pesky calls from registered telemarketers, the Department of Telecommunication and Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) advised the telemarketers to get their business entity, sender IDs and SMS templates on Distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms. DLT platforms are operator-run portals such as Airtel, Vodafone, Jio, BSNL etc. where businesses need to register by giving their business details.
TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has released new guidelines for the Bulk SMS Service Industry by introducing DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) – a blockchain-based registration system that will maintain the record of all transactions made by business entities. The sole objective of TRAI DLT regulations is to bring transparency to the system, counter the menace of SMS spam and protect consumers from fraudulent practices.
During the meeting, all the Telemarketers from various sectors such as banking and financial services, real estate, e-commerce platforms and other commercial entities have already been advised to get 140 number series prefixed to their phone number so that a consumer can identify the caller. It gives subscribers more control over what kind of calls or texts they want to receive. Various unregistered telemarketers do not follow these provisions. It was emphasized in the meeting that all telemarketers should ensure strict compliance with these enabling provisions.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Cellular Operations Association of India (COAI), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance.
