The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) introduced it has carried out a sequence of great measures to curb spam calls and forestall the misuse of SMS headers and content material templates by misleading entities spreading malicious or fraudulent messages. TRAI said on Monday that these measures goal to safeguard shopper pursuits and guarantee a clear and safe messaging ecosystem in India.
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Key Measures Applied
Strict Motion Towards Spam Calls: Since August 13, 2024, TRAI stated it has enforced robust penalties for entities making unauthorised promotional calls. Violators threat telecom disconnection, blacklisting for as much as two years, and a ban on buying new telecom assets. In response to those directives, over 800 entities have been blacklisted, and 1.8 million telecom assets (SIP DID/Cell Numbers/Telecom assets) have been disconnected so far.
Necessary Hyperlink Whitelisting: Efficient October 1, 2024, all URLs, APKs, and OTT hyperlinks in SMS messages have to be whitelisted by Entry Suppliers, permitting solely verified hyperlinks to succeed in shoppers and lowering publicity to malicious content material.
“This fashion, solely secure and accredited hyperlinks can get by way of SMS, defending shoppers from dangerous or pretend web sites, apps, or different on-line threats,” the Ministry of Communications stated.
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Blockchain for Telemarketing Calls: In one other transfer, efficient October 1, 2024, telemarketing calls starting with the 140xx sequence have been migrated to the Distributed Ledger Expertise (DLT – Blockchain) platform for strict monitoring and management.
Enhanced Message Traceability: TRAI introduced that Entry Suppliers have carried out technical options to make sure traceability of entities (Senders/Principal Entities) concerned in sending messages to recipients. This new system ensures that each entity concerned within the message transmission, from the sender to the ultimate supply, is tracked. It requires defining a Principal Entity (PE)-Telemarketers (TMs) chain by way of which messages journey earlier than reaching the Entry Supplier.
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In keeping with TRAI, PEs and TMs who fail to stick to the PE-TM chain binding will obtain day by day warnings from their respective Entry Suppliers till November 30, 2024. Efficient December 1, 2024, any messages the place the Telemarketer chain shouldn’t be outlined or doesn’t match the pre-defined chain will probably be rejected.