TRAI Has Taken Steps to Curb Pesky Calls & Messages, Fined Service Providers Rs 35 Cr: Vaishnaw in Parliament

The union minister of communications, electronics and IT recently informed Parliament about the measures taken by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to control the menace of pesky calls and messages. Additionally, Ashwini Vaishnaw noted that penalties of about Rs 35 crore have been imposed on service providers for violating the norms set by TRAI.

During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Congress’s Rajmani Patel raised queries related to such issues and the measures adopted so far. In response, the union minister noted that TRAI has taken a number of steps to curb the menace of pesky calls and messages, and these measures include:

• Issuing regulations or directions on unsolicited commercial communications (UCC).
• Monitoring the performance of Access Providers and disconnecting connections.
• Imposing financial disincentives on Access Service Providers for violating the regulations.

It was also stated in the response that in the recent past, TRAI issued directions on February 16, June 2, and June 13 to further curb unsolicited commercial communications.

Furthermore, the response highlighted: “As per the reports received, the Access Service Providers have disconnected 15,382 and 32,032 connections during the calendar year-2021 and 2022 respectively for violating TCCCPR-2018. Further, TRAI has imposed Financial Disincentives (FDs) of Rs. 34,99,98,000/- on the Access Service Providers for failing to curb unsolicited commercial communications in their networks from Registered Telemarketers.”

TRAI directed all telecom operators to use technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to deploy systems so that they can identify and take appropriate action against pesky calls. All the access providers were also asked in June to comply with the measures and requested status reports on the action taken by them within 30 days.

The regulatory authority also stated earlier that it will continue to take strong measures to ensure that consumers are protected from pesky calls and messages.