TRAI mandates service providers to flag spammers in real time

Misreporting the quantum of spam calls and messages could lead to a penalty of ₹2 lakh for the first time, ₹5 lakh for the second, and ₹10 lakh for subsequent instances

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has notified amendments to spam-related regulations mandating service providers to analyse call and SMS patterns to flag spammers in real time and providing for penalties in case of violations. Misreporting the quantum of spam calls and messages could lead to a penalty of ₹2 lakh for the first time, ₹5 lakh for the second, and ₹10 lakh for subsequent instances. TRAI can impose penalties in a graded manner.

The amendments notified on Wednesday cover measures including the use of artificial intelligence to check spam but it s not mandatory. (X)

The amendments notified on Wednesday cover measures including the use of artificial intelligence to check spam but it s not mandatory. They also classify robocalls as commercial communication.

TRAI chairperson Anil Kumar Lahoti said most of the amendments will come into effect within 30 days while others requiring syncing with the distributed ledger technology that TRAI is using to flag spammers will be implemented in 60 days.

The amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Consumer Preference Regulations, 2018, seek to address pesky calls and messages from unregistered telemarketers and scammers.

TRAI released a consultation paper in August seeking suggestions on measures to detect spam messages and calls, and stop the proliferation of identified spam through the system.

Transactional, service, and promotional were earlier the only three categories of commercial communication. Government messaging has now been identified as the fourth category. Category identifiers (-T, -S, -P, -G) will be suffixed with each message.

Subscribers will be given the option to opt out within promotional messages though the exact details of the consent management system have not yet been worked out. It could require subscribers to message to stop a service, or a link to opt out.

The automated robocalls can now only be made from a special series of numbers. People wanting to use them will need to intimate the use and aim of such calls in advance. It was unclear if political parties using robocalls for campaigning and exit polls will also need to give such intimation and whether their general calls would classify as commercial communication under the amendments.

TRAI has also revamped its Do Not Disturb app for Android and iOS to make it easier for users to report spam calls and messages by giving access to call logs of calls and messages from unknown numbers. It can directly or through an empanelled third party audit the anti-spam mechanisms.