The telecom regulator has directed service providers and telemarketing companies to take immediate action against enterprises engaging in bulk calling through 10-digit numbers and to deploy technical solutions capable of tracing and blocking such calls.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued this directive on July 24, requiring all telecom firms to submit data concerning unregistered telemarketers that have generated the highest number of consumer complaints for the April-June quarter.
Consumers face a significant volume of robocalls daily from unregistered entities or telemarketers. These calls bypass the system because they use standard 10-digit numbers rather than the numbers designated specifically for telemarketing.
Experts note that unscrupulous agents often obtain primary rate interface (PRI) services from telecom operators, which provide multiple connections at once. For instance, a single PRI connection includes 32 lines, and acquiring multiple PRIs gives access to hundreds of numbers.
These numbers are then used with robotic dialers to continuously make calls. Even if a number is blocked, alternative numbers from the same PRI can continue to contact the consumer. TRAI has also highlighted certain number prefixes, such as those starting with 731 or 129, which have been frequently reported as spam by consumers.
To combat promotional calls, including robotic, auto-dialer, and pre-recorded calls, TRAI has mandated that all such enterprise businesses migrate to a blockchain-based Distributed Ledger Technology platform, which is used to check messaging spam.
