Tighter anti-spam norms in month; TRAI pilot soon to onboard past user consents onto digital system

New Delhi: TRAI will start, this month, a pilot to onboard paper-based and past permissions given by customers for receiving commercial communications onto its digital distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, a process that in the long-run would include scrubbing and verifying their current validity and offering opt-outs to those keen on it, Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said, adding that tighter regulations on curbing spam as well as new consultation examining an authorisation framework for telemarketers can also be expected in coming weeks.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also ruled out any rethink on its latest regulation that mandates service providers to offer separate special tariff vouchers (STV) for voice calls and SMS.

Lahoti told PTI in an interview that while consumers can be encouraged to use data, they cannot be "compelled" to do so.

TRAI's focus is to protect not only the interest of the industry, but also the interest of the consumer, who must have the option to pay only for services they need, he said.

The regulator is also all set to initiate a massive rehaul of its IT system, a move, it expects, would lead to rationalisation and reduction in multiple instances of filings by telecom companies and other industry stakeholders. Deloitte which has been roped in as a consultant is on the verge of submitting its report on revamp of its IT systems.

The regulator will thereafter appoint an agency for the revamp and the entire exercise will be prioritised and completed this year, Lahoti said.

On TRAI's list of priorities for 2025 are recommendations on satellite communications spectrum -- arguably one of the most keenly watched events in a high-stakes game involving telcos like Jio, and Airtel on one side and Elon Musk's Starlink pitted on the other.

Lahoti declined to comment on the specifics or timeline for release of the recommendation except to say "all comments are being examined on their merits and we will take a balanced view".

TRAI's 2025 to-do list also includes framing recommendations for network authorisation, new authorisation framework for broadcasting, and revamp of national numbering plan for fixed line, while work will continue on combating and curbing spam calls and pesky messages. TRAI is in the process of operationalising system of separate 160 series for service or transactional calls by principal entities (say banks, insurance companies or other service providers) to differentiate them from promotional calls. Currently, both types of calls are being routed under 140 series, which will henceforth be used only for promotional calls.

Lahoti said the regulator will firm up its recommendations on millimetre wave spectrum band (auction of spectrum in 37-37.5 GHz, 37.5-40 GHz and 42.5-43.5 GHz bands) in about a month's time and also bring out a consultation paper on backhaul spectrum by March this year.

"Another thing which we will be working on is the digital consent acquisition. Although the provision for this exists in the regulation (TCCCPR), the practical constraint has been the legacy consents... because there are volumes of consent which have been acquired on paper or reside in the past systems of principal entities, the challenges has been about how to take those consents onboard to the DLT, because you cannot completely discard them," Lahoti said.

TRAI plans to work with all stakeholders to find a workable solution, to ensure such onboarding and scrubbing does not cause any disruptions.

"Presently, if you receive message or a call from a particular service provider or seller and you complain that this is spam, they are able to say that no, we have the consent of this particular subscriber on paper. Still, this is not on record, on the system, but with the principal entities. So we want to move to a system where all these consents come on the DLT platform," he said.

"The problem is how to onboard the consents which are already there and how to provide the consumer an option that if he/she has not given that consent, they should be allowed to exit," he said, adding TRAI's pilot, which starts in January, will rope in select service providers and principal entities to devise and test a mechanism by which the past consents, can be migrated onto DLT.

There should be a cut-off date beyond which legacy and paper-based consents would no longer be valid but that is a massive time-consuming exercise, he said.

TRAI will also bring-out new, tighter regulation for spam control in a month, he said referring to August discussion paper on 'Review of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018' where the regulator among other issues had sought stakeholder view on whether a higher tariff should be introduced for calls and SMS-es beyond a certain limit in a graded manner.

The regulator in the consultation paper mooted that telecom subscribers making over 50 calls or sending out even 50 SMS a day, along with certain other markers, should be scrutinised as a potential pesky callers.

About recent reports of Department of Telecom (DoT) seeking clarity from TRAI on telcos' bank guarantee encashment to recover fines against violation of regulatory provisions related to anti-spam norms, Lahoti said, "after the DoT asked this question to us, we already identified the particular licence clauses which were violated, and informed the DOT that these are licence conditions which were violated, and now they have to take action, including the amount of financial disincentives which is outstanding against them." On the industry pushback on the voice-only STVs, Lahoti said that the regulator has to take a balanced view after taking all aspects into consideration.

"We have to take a balanced view, after taking the interest of both sides into consideration....You cannot compel the consumer to buy data, unless they want to. You can encourage them to buy data, not force them to buy data...Do your marketing, education, we are not stopping you...But you can't say I will not give you an option," he said.