Trai meets RBI, Sebi, MHA, Meity, other regulators on curbing spam, fraud

Trai, along with sectoral regulators, discussed measures to curb spam and fraud, including a phased transition to the 1600-series for commercial calls and a new digital consent mechanism

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The country’s telecom regulator on Tuesday held a meeting with a joint committee of regulators — comprising representatives from RBI, Sebi, DoT and other such stakeholders — to discuss measures against spam, fraud, and misuse of telecom infrastructure. 

The regulators have also decided to launch a pilot project on digital consent acquisition. “In an increasingly digitised world, cross-sectoral collaboration among regulators is crucial for coordinated enablement of services and protection of consumers from harm. In a digital-first economy, collaboration among financial sector regulators, digital communication regulators and the security agencies becomes paramount,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said. 

Representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy), the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and other sectoral regulators were present in the meeting. 

The joint committee of regulators decided that though there was an urgent need for transition to the 1600-series for all commercial calls in the banking, financial services, and insurance sector, it should be done in a phased manner, depending on the scale of operations of the companies in that sector.   

The regulators launched a pilot project on digital consent acquisition to replace unverifiable, offline consent with a secure digital mechanism for user consent on commercial calls and messages. 

“The new mechanism will enable the consumers to digitally register, review, and revoke consents through a simple, unified and tamper-proof interface. Four dedicated working groups will oversee technical, operational, and awareness-building aspects of the pilot,” Trai said. 

The joint committee of regulators also discussed the need for a new enforcement tool that would enable an automated exchange of spam and cyber-fraud data between the MHA’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and the Digital Intelligence Platform of the DoT. 

“This will enable swift action against the telecom resources of the fraudsters, such as number disconnection, to prevent them from carrying out further frauds,” Trai said. 

Regulator on alert

  *  Cross-sectoral collaboration among regulators crucial for coordinated enablement of services

  *  Transition to the 1600-series for calls should be done in a phased manner

  *  A pilot project on digital consent acquisition launched

  *  The project aims to replace unverifiable, offline consent by secured digital consent via calls and messages