• To identify promotional calls and communications, TRAI will use AI and ML. 
• Registration on the blockchain is now required of all promoters.
• According to TRAI, the framework decreased customer complaints by up to 60%.

 On Monday, the telecom regulator TRAI announced that it is developing many technologies to identify bothersome calls and texts as well as a collaborative action plan with other regulators to prevent financial fraud.

Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), also known as intrusive communication, is a significant cause of public annoyance and violates people's privacy, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

There have been an increase in complaints against Unregistered Telemarketers (UTMs), who are promoting various UCC SMS types. Additionally, UCC calls are one of the issues that should be handled in the same way as UCC SMSes. 

The appropriate actions are being taken by TRAI in conjunction with various stakeholders to check UCC from UTMs as well. These actions include implementing a UCC detect system, offering digital consent acquisition, intelligently cleansing header and message templates, utilising AI and ML, among others, according to the release.

The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 that were released by TRAI to develop a blockchain-based ecosystem to combat the threat of intrusive calls and messages (Distributed Ledger Technology-DLT). 

Through registered telemarketers and TSPs employing DLT platforms, over 2.5 lakh major entities, more than 6 lakh headers, and nearly 55 lakh acceptable message templates have been registered under the framework. According to the regulatory body, the framework has significantly reduced customer complaints for registered telemarketers by 60%. 

However, annoying callers who are not registered continue to annoy mobile subscribers. The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi), the Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MoCA), and the Reserve Bank of India have been invited to join TRAI's Unified Committee of Regulators (JCOR) to develop a joint action plan to stop financial frauds involving telecom resources. 

'Measures to reduce the UCC further were reviewed in depth at the recent meeting of JCOR held on November 10, 2022, which was also attended by members of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA),' according to TRAI.