TRAI Mandates Fresh Digital Consent for Commercial Communications

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed various entities, including banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, and others, to seek fresh explicit consent from telecom subscribers through Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) for sending any Commercial Communications.

• Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
• 
• 

Also Read: TRAI Mandates AI, ML Based System to Tackle Unsolicited Commercial Communication

TRAI DCA Directive

In an effort to combat the menace of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) and spam, TRAI issued a directive in June 2023, mandating all Access Providers to develop and deploy the DCA facility. This initiative aims to establish a unified platform and process for customers to digitally register their consent for receiving commercial messages via SMS or voice calls.

The move comes in response to various entities, including banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, and others, sending commercial messages to telecom subscribers, often causing inconvenience. These entities are commonly referred to as Principal Entities (PEs) or Senders under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018).

Challenges in the Prevailing System

The prevailing system of consent collection has posed challenges, as consents were obtained and maintained by different PEs, making it difficult for Access Providers to verify their authenticity. Additionally, there was no unified system for customers to provide or withdraw their consent.

Also Read: TRAI Issues Recommendations on Submarine Cable Landing Licensing Framework in India

Digital Consent Acquisition Process

Under the newly introduced Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) process, customers can seek, maintain, and revoke their consents digitally, aligning with the regulations. The collected consent data will be shared on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Platform, established under TCCCPR-2018 for Commercial Communications. This platform will enable scrubbing by all Access Providers to ensure compliance with customer preferences.