“The industry has developed various modules over the DLT framework, which have been reasonably successful, considering the noticeable decline in the volume of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) originating from SMS over the last couple of years. But UCC from voice calls is still an issue that the regulator and operators are working together to address,” S P Kochhar, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said Tuesday.
The COAI counts Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) as its key members, and is working closely with the government and the regulator to tackle the UCC menace.
Kochhar added that the telcos are working on bringing more models to address the issue of UCC through voice calls. “The government has allocated the 140 series for promotional voice calls and has now prescribed the 160 series for transactional and service voice calls. These modules are being worked upon and designed under discussions between all TSPs and technology partners and will be implemented by TSPs in coming months,” he added.
According to estimates, India is amongst the largest markets for SMS phishing amid a growing mobile user base and low phone tariffs.
Some industry estimates say one of every 12 people is vulnerable every month to phishing. More than 120-150 million phishing messages are sent every month, with 60-75 million unique citizens vulnerable to attacks. Around 3 lakh people get scammed, but only 35,000-45,000 report these incidents.To check pesky communications, Trai has mandated setting up of the digital consent acquisition (DCA) framework, wherein principal entities (PEs) are required to digitally take explicit consent from users for sending commercial/business communications. “Telcos are trying to engage and onboard various PEs like banks, financial institutions and real estate agencies amongst others to implement the DCA framework,” the COAI said.The telecom industry association and its members are also part of a committee formed by the Department of Consumer Affairs to tackle the menace of pesky calls from unregistered telemarketers. The committee is working to prepare draft guidelines under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, to safeguard consumers from unwarranted commercial communications.
“We believe these guidelines, once notified, will be helpful in addressing the menace of UCC substantially as it will put a deterrence on unregistered telemarketers,” COAI added.
