Anti-spam regulations in India have been revised and now mandate the disclosure of user-based spam reports made using caller-ID and call management applications to telecom service providers.
According to the recently revised Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, any app which enables the user to classify calls as spam and junk should pass this information on to the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform maintained by the telecom operator which is used to monitor commercial communications.
This regulation has been introduced by TRAI, the telecom regulator in India, for the purpose of collecting more data about the spammers in order to take action against them. In essence, the new anti-spam system connects the reports submitted via third-party apps with the current system of the telecom industry.
Truecaller flags anticompetitive issues
This new rule has been criticized by Truecaller as being a “one way exchange.” According to Truecaller, the rule will require that any commercially valuable information collected through user reports on the Truecaller platform be shared with telecom providers.
India is especially significant for Truecaller. More than 350 million out of the more than 500 million global users of Truecaller are based in India. The number makes India the biggest market for Truecaller.
There are new guidelines for automated and AI voice call
TRAI has issued a new set of guidelines for Application to Person (A2P) calls. This includes automated calls like autodiallers, robocalls and pre-recorded or artificial voice messages.
Users of A2P calls have to inform the telecom company beforehand regarding the use of the technology, along with the identification number of the calling lines. Undeclared A2P calls are considered unsolicited commercial calls.
Regulations also include a termination fee of up to ₹0.05 per minute for some A2P calls, whereas specific commercial and authorised calls are exempt from this fee.
Enforcement of wider anti-spam regulations
Apart from the above changes, the new set of rules allows telecom operators to use advanced technological means for identification of probable spam numbers through machine-learning/AI systems. Operators must share information about high probability spam numbers with other telecom companies.
In case five or more calling line IDs of the sender are detected within 10 days, then telecom companies can conduct further investigations, which might include re-verifying KYC requirements, conducting a physical verification, barring outgoing calls/services and even disconnecting telecom resources from the sender, in case the above actions are repeated.
TRAI has also prohibited the use of call management apps that are capable of blocking, filtering, or spam tagging any calls made from designated commercial number series, namely 140xx, 1600xx, 1601xx and others. However, individual consumers will still be able to do so on their own devices.
Such regulatory changes reflect the new trend in combining app spam intelligence with enforcement mechanisms of telecom operators.
