The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced it has implemented a series of significant measures to curb spam calls and prevent the misuse of SMS headers and content templates by deceptive entities spreading malicious or fraudulent messages. TRAI stated on Monday that these measures aim to safeguard consumer interests and ensure a clean and secure messaging ecosystem in India.
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Key Measures Implemented
Strict Action Against Spam Calls: Since August 13, 2024, TRAI said it has enforced tough penalties for entities making unauthorised promotional calls. Violators risk telecom disconnection, blacklisting for up to two years, and a ban on acquiring new telecom resources. In response to these directives, over 800 entities have been blacklisted, and 1.8 million telecom resources (SIP DID/Mobile Numbers/Telecom resources) have been disconnected to date.
Mandatory Link Whitelisting: Effective October 1, 2024, all URLs, APKs, and OTT links in SMS messages must be whitelisted by Access Providers, allowing only verified links to reach consumers and reducing exposure to malicious content.
"This way, only safe and approved links can get through SMS, protecting consumers from harmful or fake websites, apps, or other online threats," the Ministry of Communications said.
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Blockchain for Telemarketing Calls: In another move, effective October 1, 2024, telemarketing calls beginning with the 140xx series have been migrated to the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT - Blockchain) platform for strict monitoring and control.
Enhanced Message Traceability: TRAI announced that Access Providers have implemented technical solutions to ensure traceability of entities (Senders/Principal Entities) involved in sending messages to recipients. This new system ensures that every entity involved in the message transmission, from the sender to the final delivery, is tracked. It requires defining a Principal Entity (PE)-Telemarketers (TMs) chain through which messages travel before reaching the Access Provider.
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According to TRAI, PEs and TMs who fail to adhere to the PE-TM chain binding will receive daily warnings from their respective Access Providers until November 30, 2024. Effective December 1, 2024, any messages where the Telemarketer chain is not defined or does not match the pre-defined chain will be rejected.
