The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will enforce a new regulation blocking non-whitelisted messages that contain URLs or APKs starting from September 1, 2024. By October 31, 2024, Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) must complete technical updates for entity and telemarketer chain binding.
TRAI declared a directive following a meeting with major telecom providers such as Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Idea, and Quadrant Televentures on August 8, 2024. The instructions mandates that any organization exploiting bulk connections for spam calls will face disconnection of all telecom resources by their TSP and be blacklisted till two years.
The organization often misapply SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and PRI (Primary Rate Interface) lines to produce large volumes of numbers for spam calls. PRI lines, which support up to 32 connections, are particularly misused by unethical agents, leading to constant spam even if one number is blocked.
A LocalCircles survey disclosed that over 66% of Indians received three or more spam calls daily last year, with 92% of those on the National Do Not Call Registry still experiencing interference. To battle this, TRAI talked about enhancing message traceability and transitioning to a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform during the meeting. The DLT, based on blockchain technology, focuses to upgrade sender ID verification and message template management.
Also, TRAI conveyed issues related to robotic and pre-recorded calls, requiring principal entities to register before sending promotional messages, including OTPs and account updates on August 6, 2024.
