TRAI Slapped ₹35 Crore Fine On Jio, Airtel, And Vodafone For Falling Short In Curbing Spam Calls, SMS

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reportedly fined Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea a total of ₹34.99 Crore. These Indian telecom service providers were penalized because they failed to stem the rampant growth of spam calls and SMS on their networks.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw indicated that India's "Access Providers" were falling short of their obligations. Let's look at the developments and see how this might affect Indian telecom subscribers.

Indian Telcos Need To Do A Lot More To Stop Pesky Spam Calls, SMS

Vaishnaw informed the Indian Parliament that Access Providers Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea were collectively fined around ₹35 Crore for failing to curb pesky calls and SMS on their network:

"TRAI has imposed financial disincentives of Rs. 34,99,98,000 on the Access Service Providers for failing to curb unsolicited commercial communications in their networks from Registered Telemarketers."

Telecom operators in India have disconnected 15,382 and 32,032 connections during the calendar year- 2021 and 2022, respectively, for violating Telecom Commercial Communication Customers Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018, confirmed the minister.

Although the telecom service providers have taken some action, the sheer magnitude ensures the impact is minuscule. As such, Access Providers need to step up and take much more stringent or aggressive steps to curb the menace, as the TRAI appears to have implied with the fine.

Service Providers To Ensure Subscribers Grant Consent For Promotional Calls, Messages

TRAI recently directed Access Providers to develop a unified digital platform in two months to allow their subscribers to grant, maintain and revoke consent for promotional calls and messages.

In the first phase, only subscribers will be able to initiate the process to register their consent for receiving promotional calls and SMS. Subsequently, business entities would be able to reach out to customers to seek their consent to receive promotional messages, TRAI said in a statement.

Access providers have been further directed to use a common short code, starting with 127, for sending consent-seeking messages. Needless to say, such a mechanism is nowhere to be seen.