TRAI asks telecom firms to block bulk calls & adopt blockchain for spam control"
telecom regulator has asked service providers and telemarketing companies to take immediate action against enterprises indulged in bulk calling through 10-digit numbers and deploy technical solutions which can trace and block such calls.
ET has reported last week that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on July 24, directed all telecom firms to submit data around unregistered telemarketers, against whom maximum complaints have been registered by consumers in the April-June quarter.
Telecom consumers receive lakhs of robocalls everyday by unregistered entities or telemarketers. Such calls bypass the system as these entities use a normal 10-digit numbering series and not the one assigned for telemarketing, say officials.
As per experts, unscrupulous agents usually take a primary rate interface (PRI) service from telcos, which provide them 32 connections at one go. Since one PRI comes with 32 connections, taking 10 or more gives a bouquet of over 320 numbers, which are then put on a robotic dialler, which continuously keeps calling people. Even in case a number is blocked by a consumer, alternate numbers from the same PRI calls the customer again. Trai has also highlighted various numbers, like the ones that start with 731, 129 etc, which have been reported by consumers as spam.
TRAI, on Tuesday said that to control promotional calls including robotic calls, auto-dialler, and pre-recorded calls, all such enterprise businesses must be migrated to the blockchain-based DLT platform deployed for checking
