The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) aims to bring telemarketers under a regulatory regime to combat rising spam calls. This comes after the telcos Jio, Airtel & Vodafone-Idea submitted their responses in the ongoing consultations on Telecom Commercial Communications Preference (TCCP) regulation to combat Spam Calls. 

What’s the Buzz? 

The DoT has sent a reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to suggest a regulatory or authorization regime framework to regulate telemarketers, ET reports.  Amid the ongoing consultations on the Spam issue, TRAI is expected to present a  Supplementary paper to address these concerns. 

What’s the Pain Point? 

In India, there are around 28,000 businesses that employ SMS marketing which is furthered to around 16,000 aggregators and finally executed by some 15 delivery telemarketers, telcos stated in their submission. These 15 are the final carriers and the telcos have no visibility of the entire message delivery chain once it reaches the Delivery Telemarketers. 

So basically, the Telcos don’t control the framework but they are penalized for the same. Also, the telemarketers keep changing operators to avoid paying the recoverable amount to the operators. Hence the system remains unaccountable and lop-sided. 

Where Does the Problem Lie? 

The problem lies in the fact that telcos are practically not in a position to address the issue as they don’t have any control over the Delivery Telemarketers and hence the spam messages generated therefrom. The gap lies in the framework in place that doesn’t take into account the nitty-gritty of the existing framework between Telemarketers and telcos 

Repercussion of Regulation 

To combat the problem while also addressing the gaps in the existing framework, DoT has asked TRAI to suggest a regulatory mechanism for telemarketers to curb spam and enhance customer experience. The framework would ensure accountability on the part of the telemarketers thus combating Spam Calls effectively. 

Strict Approach 

DoT had suspended the licenses of 2 telemarketing entities- V-con Intelligent Security and OneXtel Media as they were found sending 55.5 fraudulent SMSes to telephone users since Jan 2024.  These actions are part of a bigger crackdown en-route to tackle the issue of rising Spam calls.