TRAI chairman, telcos to meet on March 27 to find a way out of unsolicited calls menace

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman PD Vaghela will meet telco representatives on March 27 to discuss ways to deal with the menace of unsolicited text messages and calls, the regulatory body has said.

The meeting will explore a multi-pronged approach to address the problem of unsolicited commercial communications, as spam calls and messages are referred to, through technical solutions, regulations, directions and close monitoring in order to stop public inconvenience, TRAI said in a statement on March 22.

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“TRAI issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR) on July 19, 2018, which put in place a framework for controlling UCC ... Further to the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCOR) meeting held on February 23, 2023 under the chairmanship of Vaghela, there has been a consistent focus and drive to implement UCC detect solutions in order to control UCC & spam on telecom networks,” TRAI said.

According to TRAI, consumers can block all commercial communications (calls and SMSs) or can selectively block UCCs from specified seven categories.

In case a consumer uses their telephone connection to send promotional messages, their telephone connection will be liable for disconnection on the first complaint and their name and address may be blacklisted for a period of two years.