The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) convened a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) at its headquarters on Friday, April 25, to deliberate on cross-sectoral regulatory issues and reinforce collaborative mechanisms to tackle unsolicited commercial communication (UCC), spam, and fraudulent digital communications.
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Collaborative Push Against UCC and Fraud
Representatives from RBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, SEBI, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, MeitY, along with special invitees from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) participated in the session, the Ministry of Communications said.
Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR)
The Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR), an initiative of TRAI, was established to foster collaborative efforts among sectoral regulators from the telecommunication, IT, Consumer Affairs, and financial and insurance sectors to deliberate cross sectoral regulatory issues in the digital world and work collaboratively on adopting appropriate regulatory measures.
In his opening address, TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti emphasised the critical need for coordinated regulatory action to combat rising incidents of spam and digital fraud, particularly targeting vulnerable populations such as senior citizens. He highlighted the progress achieved under JCoR and outlined future challenges.
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Key Discussions and Resolutions
Key issues discussed during the meeting included:
Implementation of 1600 Series Numbers: The committee discussed the use of dedicated 1600 series numbers for transactional and service voice calls by government and financial sector entities. Members agreed to expedite implementation and ensure regular monitoring. A presentation by CoAI proposed a unified CLI solution across all telecom service providers.
Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) Onboarding: Modalities for onboarding commercial communication senders (Principal Entities) onto the DCA platform were deliberated. JCoR members agreed to engaging relevant entities for timely adoption, the Ministry said.
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Combatting Fraudulent Communications: The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) shared strategies to address digital frauds, including deletion of unused message headers and templates, and blocking of phone numbers and IMEIs used for scams. Members agreed to collaborate on implementing these measures.
Addressing Spam via OTT and RCS Platforms: The increasing misuse of Over-The-Top (OTT) and Rich Communication Services (RCS) platforms for scams was discussed. MeitY will engage stakeholders to develop regulatory approaches similar to those for conventional telecom channels.
"The JCOR members agreed to further strengthen the collaborative efforts to address these issues collectively so as to increase cross sectoral collaboration and also protect consumers from the harms of spam and fraud while ensuring a more secure and efficient telecom commercial communication ecosystem," the official release said.
