The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has come up with a new rule for the international calls that Indian consumers receive. The telecom department has amended the clause in the unified license for TSPs (telecom service providers), which says that ILDOs (International Long-Distance Operators) need to stop any international call without or with improper caller line identification (CLI) from reaching the end customer.
This move will up the security of Indian consumers who can potentially be scammed by international callers with no proper caller line identification (CLI). The telcos must stop such calls at the server level so that it never reaches the customer. The rule will come into effect from August 1, 2022.
To identify an improper CLI, DoT has asked to refer to ITU-T recommendations on E.164 numbering scheme. What happened until now?
Rules of the Existing Clause
As per the existing clause, if there was any case of a foreign call to India with an improper CLI, then the ILD operator was allowed to assign a two-digit carrier identification code followed by the country code from where the call was being made.
For example, any time you would have received an international call, there must have been an international country code on display.
The amended clause was announced by the DoT on July 6, 2022, on its website, and as mentioned above, it will come into effect from August 8, 2022. So, the concerned TSPs have some time to implement this rule in their system. It will definitely contribute to making the mobile calling experience a safer one for Indian consumers at large.
The DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) look after the rights of the consumers and ensure that they are not cheated in any manner ever. The telcos should ideally not face any problems with this move, and it should be implemented pretty smoothly.
