Pesky calls: Trai seeks 2-10L fines on telcos for violations – The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday intensified its crackdown on pesky calls and messages with new rules, that prescribe fines ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for recurring and repeated instances of violation, in cases where telcos misreport the count of such spams.
The regulator has mandated all telecom operators to analyse calls and SMS patterns based on parameters, such as unusually high call volumes, short call durations, and low incoming-to-outgoing call ratios to flag potential spammers in real-time. The amendment in the regulation in Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations comes with a graded penalty, that will be imposed on telecom operators in case they fail to implement the provisions of the rule.
“A financial disincentive (FD) of Rs 2 lakh for the first instance of violation, Rs 5 lakh for the second instance of violation and Rs 10 lakh per instance for subsequent instances of violation, shall be imposed on access providers in case of misreporting of the count of UCC,” Trai said.
The new penalties will be levied, in addition to existing fines imposed on telecom operators against invalid closure of complaints, and not fulfilling their obligations in respect of registration of approved message headers and content templates. The new rules will be implemented in two phases within 30 and 60 days.
Trai has given more power to subscribers for filing complaints against pesky callers and spammers. Once the new norms are rolled out, subscribers will get seven days to report about pesky calls and SMS instead of the three days limit at present. Subscribers will not need to register under ‘Do Not Disturb’ list for making complaints against unregistered pesky callers means those who call from phone numbers that do not start with prefix like 140 and 160. agencies