NEW DELHI: In a bid to stop growing menace of the financial fraud in the country, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI) on Monday directed telecom operators to implement artificial antelligence by 1 May 2023.
The technology will enable telcos to check pesky messages , eventually blocking them. “We have directed the telcos to implement the technology soon so that we can stop this menace. We will review its progress on a fortnightly basis,” said P D Vaghela, Chairman of TRAI.
The menace of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) have increased manifold in the country. As per survey by LocalCircles, 66% of mobile users continue to get at least three pesky calls every day, most of which originate from personal mobile numbers.
The meeting, which was attended by the top executives of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL, the telecom regulatory body also directed telcos to ask enterprises like banks and insurance firms to clean-up of headers and content templates.
Vaghela said currently about 6 lakh headers and 60 lakh templates are lying unused. Therefore, the firms were asked to strengthen the registration process of of telemarketing firms and principal entities. All PEs( principal entities), like bank and insurance companies, who are using bulk SMS services or calling should block unused headers and Templates within 30 days/60 days.
At the same time, banks or any other enterprises will be allocated fresh series of numbers for voice call for transaction or service calls. In the meeting it was also decided to share the details of suspected spammers or scammers by service providers on a common platform and blocking of message transaction proactively.
Also, complaints received at Cyber Crime Cell of MHA will be shared with all TSPs ( Telecom Service Providers). All these rules will be applicable for all voice-based telemarketers. From 1 May 2023, the TRAI also urged them to come on the common platform DLT (Distribution ledger technology) for better monitoring and control. DLT is a blockchain-based solution that the TRAI has mandated all operators use to keep spam messages in check.