The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has imposed additional fines on the telcos for failing to stop the spam calls made to the customers on their network. TRAI has gotten very strict when it comes to matters such as spam or fraudulent communications. Under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), TRAI has imposed these financial penalties on the telcos. But the telcos don't believe they should be penalised here because they have no responsibility for the generation of spam calls.
But their failure to curb spam calls is good enough for TRAI to impose financial penalties. This time, TRAI has imposed Rs 12 crore on all the telcos including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea (Vi), and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Earlier, about Rs 141 crore worth of penalties were imposed for the same thing on the telcos, according to an ET report.
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Since the telcos are not paying the fines, TRAI has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to encash bank guarantees (BGs) to recover the amount. DoT has not done it yet and is still considering on the matter.
Telcos Request OTT Platforms Should be Held Responsible Too
Platforms such as WhatsApp allow users to receive and make voice calls. These are unregulated in India at the moment. Thus, the telcos have informed TRAI that OTT (over-the-top) communication platforms should also be held responsible for spam calls. Until the time that happens, spam calls won't stop completely in India.
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Telcos are calling these penalties from the TRAI unfair because the spam calls are generated by another party and pushed by others, while all the financial penalties are put on the telcos alone.
It is worth noting that Bharti Airtel has already launched an AI-powered feature on its network which is alerting customers in real time for spam communications. The same is what BSNL is doing. Despite their efforts and investments, the telcos are alone being penalised the sector regulator, and they don't like that.
