TRAI working on new measures to combat spam calls and SMS, relief for consumers ahead

The Chairman of TRAI, Anil Kumar Lahoti, announced that the organization is preparing to launch a pilot project this month that aims to incorporate paper-based permissions and previously granted consents from customers for commercial communications into its digital distributed ledger technology platform. He emphasized that one of TRAI's key objectives is to focus on acquiring digital consent, noting that while existing regulations support this goal, the challenge lies in managing legacy consents. In addition, TRAI plans to introduce new and stricter regulations for spam control within a month, following a discussion paper released in August regarding the review of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018. Regarding recent inquiries from the Department of Telecom about the clarity on telcos' bank guarantee encashment aimed at recovering fines for violations of anti-spam regulations, Lahoti confirmed that TRAI identified the specific license clauses that had been breached and informed the DoT of these violations, indicating that the DoT now needs to take action, including addressing outstanding financial penalties related to these issues.