On Tuesday, TRAI announced that a major pilot project is underway to enhance consumer control over commercial communications. This initiative aims to replace unverifiable, offline consents with a secure digital consent framework. According to a TRAI statement, a Joint Committee of Regulators had intensified efforts to combat spam, fraud, and the misuse of telecom infrastructure. The pilot project, coordinated by TRAI and the RBI, reportedly includes telecom service providers (TSPs) and major banks such as SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) indicated that four dedicated working groups would oversee the technical, operational, and awareness-building aspects of this pilot.
Dedicated 1600-number series
The statement added that the Joint Committee of Regulators, during a meeting hosted by TRAI in the national capital, also discussed establishing timelines for migrating transactional and service calls in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors to the dedicated 1600-number series.
Considering the differing operational scales of entities, it was agreed that the migration could occur in a phased manner, based on inputs provided by the sectoral regulators to TRAI.
Representatives from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, and the IT Ministry convened at TRAI headquarters, joined by officials from the Department of Telecom (DoT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
The forum focused on implementing collaborative regulatory measures, particularly in light of the increasing incidence of digital payment-linked fraud. TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti stated that in a digital-first economy, collaboration among financial sector regulators, digital communication regulators, and security agencies becomes paramount.
Additionally, the committee discussed the need for automated exchange of spam and cyber fraud data among the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the Digital Intelligence Platform of the DoT, and the DLT platform maintained by access providers.
According to the statement, this would facilitate swift action against fraudsters' telecom resources, such as number disconnection, to prevent further fraudulent activities.
Misuse of SIP and PRI telecom lines
The committee highlighted the misuse of SIP and PRI telecom lines for bulk spam. Options under discussion reportedly included issuing these lines from a designated number range and imposing additional safeguards to ensure responsible use.
The sector regulator further stated that it had revamped its SMS header portal to empower customers to obtain information about entities sending commercial messages using a particular header.
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