TRAI Imposes Rs. 35 Crore Penalty On Telecom Operators

Leading telecom operators are going to face another trouble as TRAI has imposed penalties on them. The telecom regulator slapped Rs. 35 crore penalty on operators, including Vodafone-Idea, Airtel, and Reliance Jio for allowing cybercriminals to send messages to customers, which are increasing digital payment frauds in India.

However, the highest penalty of Rs. 30.1 crore imposed on the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Other companies included in that list is Tata Teleservices, Videocon, Quadrant Teleservices, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited.

Similarly, the regulator issues a show-cause notice Vi, Quadrant, and Airtel, where they have to pay Rs. 1.82 crore, 1.41 crore, and 1.33 crore. In addition, Reliance Jio also received a penalty notice from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India; however, the amount has not been disclosed.

This development comes at that time when Digital companies, especially Paytm are fighting against all telecom players in the Delhi High Court as the former believes that operators are not serious about spam messages. Many customers have also complained about the spam messages to change the password, OTP, and more.

"The telecom companies will definitely dispute this fine in the court, but I don't expect any positive outcome because the regulator has done its independent investigation, so Paytm seems to have an upper hand clearly," said a high court lawyer was quoted by ET.

Promotional Messages By Companies

For the unaware, all companies send promotional messages to their customers; however, they have to register the whole content on the blockchain-based platform that is operated by the telecom companies. The platform prevents all spam messages, including fraud SMSs. TRAI penalties on telecom players show that Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vi, BSNL, and more are not serious about preventing or monitoring these messages and that's why it slapped the penalty on them.