New Delhi: The leading telecom service providers have expressed disappointment on the recent notification issued by telecom regulatory TRAI to curb spam calls and messages without regulating the telemarketers and OTT players.
The apex association of TSPs, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has issued a statement opposing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) saying a more comprehensive approach is required to resolve the issue of spam communication effectively and the operators have given their detailed recommendations in this regards but unfortunately the TRAI has gone ahead without considering them.
“COAI is disappointed to notice that the TRAI’s amendment of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018 to strengthen consumer protection against Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), has been issued without addressing all relevant issues. One of the most important demand of the TSPs was that this amendment should be released only after the delivery telemarketers (TMs) are brought under regulation to manage unlawful communication.”
COAI would like to add here that it is in public knowledge that the DoT has already sought TRAI’s inputs on the authorization of TMs. “We had submitted to TRAI that the only feasible and optimal approach to handling UCC can be by bringing the Telemarketers under the licensing regime. Moreover, it would also establish that the Government and the Authority have legal control over entities responsible for sending such communications, in compliance with TCCCPR-2018.
It should be noted that the DoT has already sought TRAI’s inputs on the authorization of TMs and we have made our recommendations for the same.”
Further elaborating on the issue, COAI DG Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar said “We believe that a more comprehensive approach is required to tackle the issue effectively. In the current digital landscape, both OTT communication providers and telemarketers (TMs) have become major stakeholders in messaging, and thus, it would be critical to establish a regulatory framework to ensure accountability from all stakeholders in the ecosystem, including OTT platforms and Telemarketers/Principal Entities.”
COAI expressed concerns that the Second Amendment does not bring OTT Communication Service Providers under the ambit of this Regulation, nor does it address the UCC issues at its source.
While the TSPs have taken ample steps to curb spam calls and messages, there has been a significant increase in the quantum of unsolicited communications as well as legitimate commercial communication, that has moved to OTT communication apps, substantially leading to the rise in financial crimes in the country.
“We earnestly believe that TRAI should take into consideration our key submission and bring these entities under the ambit of the Regulation, as it would make no sense to regulate one section of the traffic (TSPs) while the other section (OTT Communication Services) has no regulations at all,” Kochhar said.
At the same time, it is also concerning that the authority has substantially increased the penalty to be imposed over the TSPs. COAI had submitted that Financial Disincentives (FDs) on TSPs, being only intermediary in this process, do not serve any purpose and have failed to address the issue in TRAI’s all attempts to curb UCC. Instead, if at all these penalties are required, it should be directed to TM-D or the PEs who are actual originators and beneficiaries of the commercial communications.
Another important aspect was to reduce subjectivity from the Regulation as well as compliances, which are based on relationship between Principal Entities and their consumers, which has not been addressed. “Since operators have made all the efforts that have considerably reduced their UCC complaints to a very low level, we were of the view that the telecom operators should not be penalized for unwarranted actions of some other subscribers,” he added.
