New Delhi, August 28, 2024: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) convened a critical meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) on August 27, 2024, at its headquarters in New Delhi. The session brought together representatives from key regulatory bodies, including the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and TRAI itself. Officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) attended as special guests.
The JCoR meeting, a collaborative platform for examining and addressing regulatory challenges in the digital era, focused on protecting consumers from the growing threats of spam and fraud within the telecom sector. TRAI Chairman Shri Anil Kumar Lahoti emphasized the necessity of a united effort to tackle these issues, urging regulators to implement key measures, including the whitelisting of URLs, APKs, OTT links, and callback numbers in SMS content, and the migration of existing telemarketers to the 140 series on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform.
Key discussions during the meeting included:
- Whitelisting and Traceability: Regulators discussed the importance of mandatory whitelisting for URLs, APKs, OTT links, and callback numbers, as well as ensuring the traceability of messages from senders to recipients. This step is seen as crucial to combat the misuse of headers and content templates in fraudulent activities.
- Migration to 140 Series for Telemarketers: The need to migrate business entities using SIP/PRI channels for promotional calls to the 140 series was highlighted, along with the urgency of taking decisive action against spammers using bulk connections for unsolicited voice calls, robocalls, and pre-recorded calls.
- Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) System: The JCoR explored the potential of leveraging the DCA system established by telecom service providers to obtain digital consent from consumers, enabling the delivery of messages and calls even to those who have opted for Do Not Disturb (DND) preferences.
- 160 Series for Service and Transactional Calls: The use of the 160 series for service and transactional calls was discussed, with a pilot study conducted by TRAI and RBI being reviewed for its technical feasibility.
- Enhanced Information Exchange: The meeting underscored the importance of improving information exchange among regulators to control fraud using telecom resources.
By addressing these critical issues, the JCoR aims to enhance consumer protection against telecom-related fraud and spam, thereby ensuring a more secure and efficient telecom ecosystem.
