Ever since the days of keypad mobiles, common people have been annoyed by telemarketing or promotional calls or messages. Even though the age of smartphones has come, many people have not seen much change in this picture. Although the government of Digital India has been thinking about the issue for a long time. The Center had previously demanded that telecom firms ban unwanted calls and messages, and had even published new guidelines for spam SMS and calls. In this case, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI has taken a big step in this regard. For failing to follow their instructions and prevent unsolicited calls and messages from users, the regulator recently fined telecom providers Rs 35 crore. Union Telecom Minister, Ashwini Vaishnab, disclosed this information in written form in Parliament.
Government orders are not effective
Notably, TRAI has directed all network service providers in the country to develop a unified digital platform within two months, so that customers interested in promotional calls and messages will have a specific option as to whether they want to take advantage of the same. Additionally, the department ordered telecom providers to implement AI-based spam filters (AIML) on their networks by May 1 of last year. But it has been observed that despite all this, the number of unwanted calls has not reduced in the last two months.
In this case, TRAI and the Center fined multiple telecoms a total of Rs 34.99 crore for failing to stop registered telemarketers from using their networks for commercial purposes. In breach of the rules of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018, telecom companies canceled 15,382 and 32,032 connections in FY 2021 and 2022, respectively, according to a report by Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnab.
Unwanted call-message violence has increased
Approximately 76 percent of respondents to a survey earlier this year claimed to have received unwanted calls or messages based on chats with WhatsApp business accounts and time spent on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Moreover, this problem is increasing in daily experience. All in all, there is no certainty when this problem will be solved. Maybe my phone will ring at lunch time!