Trai proposes lower threshold for action on spam flagged by telcos' AI

Regulator proposes lowering complaint threshold for action on AI-flagged spam and seeks compliance with spam regulations from call management apps and phone diallers

India’s telecom regulator has proposed to use AI spam detection being used by telecom service providers as a base for regulatory action, amid several amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR) rules aimed at curbing spam and scam.

 

In an extensive consultation paper issued on Friday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that the amendments were being proposed in light of developments such as the implementation of AI-based detection of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC), or spam, by all three major carriers — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The regulator proposed new provisions to make the regulatory framework more effective and efficient.

   

Trai said that while the AI-based spam detection only alerts customers of potential spam but does not take action, the regulator has proposed to lower the threshold to three unique customer complaints from the existing five complaints for taking action against a sender if the number is flagged as suspicious by the AI system in the last 10 days.

 

“Considering that the majority of the large number of unsolicited commercial communications originate from unregistered senders/telemarketers which bypass the DND registry on the DLT platform, these AI-based solutions need to be utilised to initiate regulatory action promptly against such UCC senders on a much wider scale,” the regulator said.

 

Widening the net to include call management apps in its ambit of protection from spam, Trai said that such apps, including phone diallers and third-party apps, must comply with regulatory provisions. Therefore, Trai has proposed to amend Regulation 34A of the TCCCPR rules, where non-compliant apps may be warned for violations, declared as ‘non-compliant and violator’ and may also lose the exemption from liability of intermediary and face penal action under the IT Act, 2000.

 

It has also proposed that such apps should not block or filter commercial calls from the designated 140/1600 series or government communications, and spam reports made within such apps must be forwarded to the DLT platform of the telcos so that regulatory action can be triggered.

 

Trai also proposed to introduce a termination charge on Application-to-Person (A2P) calls up to Rs 0.05, or five paise, as a deterrent for bulk unsolicited calling through cheap person-to-person routes. A2P calls by or on the direction of the Central Government, state governments, constitutional bodies, the Authority, or any agency authorised by Trai will be exempt from these termination charges. Bulk callers have to declare the use of A2P to their access providers in advance.

 

The regulator has suggested broadening the definition of ‘Explicit Consent’ to recognise legacy consents obtained outside the digital DLT framework, which will allow businesses to upload and register such historical consents into the system. “This change is expected to enable orderly migration of lawfully obtained consents to the CRF ecosystem while ensuring transparency and preserving the subscriber’s right to be notified and revoke such consents,” the regulator said.

 

Trai has also proposed that if headers or content templates are misused by fraudsters, only the misused header or template is suspended first, and the sender is given 24 hours’ notice to take corrective action. If the sender fails to act, then all commercial traffic from the sender is suspended. Currently, the entire sender’s traffic is suspended, which disrupts legitimate services from banks or government bodies.

 

In order to strengthen complaint resolution by telcos, the service providers must resolve appeals within 15 days, Trai said. “To have greater accountability, it has also been proposed that every telco should designate a permanent employee working at senior management level as the Appellate Authority whose contact details shall be duly published at a prominent place on the official website of the concerned carrier,” it added.

 

Trai has also proposed to introduce enabling provisions to classify senders based on criteria such as the importance of the entity to the economy or to a critical sector, the criticality of services being delivered to consumers, the nature and regulatory status of the entity, the scale and volume of operations, the extent and manner of usage of telecom resources, the potential impact of suspension/disconnection of telecom resources on consumers, etc., and to specify different sets of actions to be taken against different classes of senders for violations from time to time.