August 29, 2024, New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is introducing new measures starting September 1 to address the issue of spam calls and messages. To deter spammers who exploit SIP/PRI lines, any entity caught misusing telecom resources for spam will face severe penalties, including immediate disconnection of services and a two-year blacklist from all telecom operators. Additionally, starting September 1, messages containing non-whitelisted URLs or APKs will be prohibited to prevent harmful links often used by spammers to deceive consumers or distribute malware. Telecom operators have until October 31 to implement technical measures for entity and telemarketer chain binding, enhancing the traceability of message flows and strengthening regulatory oversight.

Minister of State for Communications Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani recently told parliament that the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018) will help curtail spam calls. These regulations enable telecom subscribers to register their preferences in the Do Not Call (DNC) Registry, allowing them to block all commercial communications or selectively choose categories to block. Till early August, approximately 22 crore subscribers had utilized this option, according to media reports. According to TRAI’s new set of guidelines for telecom operators, which were announced on June 2, 2023, cellular networks in India are required to obtain explicit consent from users before sending them promotional or spam messages, effectively putting an end to unsolicited promotional communications. Under the new system, companies, including banks, insurance firms, and other financial institutions, must obtain individual’s direct permission before sending any promotional SMS or making marketing calls. This move is part of TRAI's efforts to curb the nuisance of spam and Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). Previously, the responsibility of obtaining consent lay with the companies, and telecom service providers had no means to verify the legitimacy of these consents. However, with the introduction of DCA, there is now a unified platform for both obtaining and revoking customer consent. This consent data will be managed on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform, enhancing the transparency and integrity of the process.

Despite TRAI's directives, telecom operators have neglected to comply with the regulations. Consequently, TRAI imposed penalties of INR 1 crore on Airtel and Vi for their failure to follow the established norms. Under the new guidelines the telecom operators are required to obtain the consent of the user on a per-agency basis thereby empowering consumers by ensuring that they receive commercial messages only from entities they have explicitly consented to. TRAI concerns are not without reason as India is witnessing an alarming surge in even scam calls and messages.

For proper compliance, the regulator had last year directed telecom operators to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to detect and block spam calls and text messages. Stating that the move is aimed at protecting consumers from unsolicited commercial communications (UCC), TRAI stressed that “Unwanted Telemarketing Messages (UTMs) are continuously evolving new techniques to send UCC and the current systems deployed by access service providers are not fully capable of detecting them.” However, TRAI’s directive to deploy AI/ML-based detection systems within three months has not had the desired impact as LocalCircles survey shows.

Earlier this month, TRAI instructed telecom operators to ensure that the origin and path of all messages from senders to recipients are traced. The telecom companies have been directed to activate this traceability by November 1 this year. LocalCircles appreciates that the government has taken note of the citizens’ concerns over issues related to unwanted calls and messages to the people in the country, which often leads to frauds/ scams and financial losses. Few months back, the Central Consumer Protection Authority had issued guidelines “to protect consumers from unfair trade practices and violation of their consumer rights through unsolicited and unwarranted business communication in the form of voice calls, SMS, and instant messaging applications including through social media platforms”. The government order “Guidelines for the Prevention and Regulation of Unsolicited and Unwarranted Business Communication, 2024,” clarifies that unsolicited and unwarranted Business Communication means any communication for sale or promotion of goods and services that is neither as per the consent nor as per the registered preference(s) of the recipient.

The Indian Telecommunications Bill, 2023, passed by parliament in December 2023, seeks to create a more robust legal and regulatory framework for telecom networks. It also seeks to safeguard user interest and foster innovation and tackle the menace of fraudulent calls and spam SMS including from international numbers. Last year, the government has blocked 65 telecom setups that were enabling fraudulent calls with fake Indian numbers. The DoT had earlier issued instructions to International Long-Distance Operators (ILDOs) to reject incoming calls lacking proper Caller Line Identification (CLI) or carrying certain prefixes. It is also working closely with law enforcement agencies and telecom service providers (TSPs) to uncover and dismantle these illegal telecom setups, often used for anti-national activities, cyber-crimes, and financial frauds.

As TRAI gets ready to introduce new norms to address the menace of pesky SMS and more, LocalCircles has conducted a baseline survey to find out the magnitude of the spam messaging problem and the kind of unwanted messages they receive. The survey received over 41,000 responses from citizens located in 357 districts of India. 67% respondents were men while 33% respondents were women. 41% respondents were from tier 1, 35% from tier 2 and 24% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

76% of citizens surveyed claim that they get 3 or more promotional or spam SMS on their phone every day

The last few surveys conducted by LocalCircles have revealed that very few are lucky not to receive unwanted or spam messages. The survey asked, “On average, how many unwanted, pesky, sales/promotional SMS/text messages do you receive on your mobile number every day?” This query received 10,834 responses with 15% of those surveyed indicating they receive at least 1-2 unwanted SMS every day; 33% of respondents indicated 3-5 unwanted SMS; 18% of respondents indicated 6-10 SMS; and 25% indicated over 10 SMS every day. In addition, 7% of respondents did not give a clear response opting for “can’t say” and just 2% of respondents stated they “don’t get any such text messages/ SMS”. The data thus shows that 76% of citizens surveyed claim that they get 3 or more promotional or spam SMS on their phone every day.

8 in 10 of citizens surveyed who are registered on DND list say they still get unwanted SMS

Years after the Do Not Disturb (DND) registration started, people are still getting unwanted messages on their mobile phones. The survey next asked citizens “Do you get unwanted, pesky, sales/promotional SMS/ text messages on your mobile despite registering on the Do Not Disturb (DND) list?” Out of 10,640 who responded to this query 83% stated “yes, still get them”; only 10% stated “no, don’t get them” and 7% of respondents gave no clear response indicating “can’t say”. Clearly, over 8 in 10 of citizens surveyed who are registered on DND list say they still get unwanted SMS.

Financial services and real estate services are top senders of unwanted or promotional SMS

To find out what types of unwanted text messages/ SMS people get, the survey next asked respondents, “Under what category do you get the most number of unwanted, pesky, sales/promotional SMS/ text messages on your mobile number?” Out of 10,654 responses received for this query 50% indicated “selling financial services”; 32% “selling real estate”; 6% indicated “offering a job/ earnings opportunity”; 2% indicated “providing healthcare/ pathology services”; 2% indicated “providing mobile number, better mobile talk/ data plans, etc.”; 2% indicated “other categories” not listed above and 6% of respondents stated, “can’t say”. The data shows that financial services and real estate services are top senders of unwanted or promotional SMS.

87% of citizens surveyed say they are receiving unwanted SMS from mobile numbers and from coded senders that are hard to associate with a company/ brand

The survey next asked “How do you receive the majority of these unwanted, pesky, sales/ promotional SMS/ text messages on your mobile?” This query received 9,888 responses with 56% indicating “from different mobile phone numbers”; 31% of respondents indicated “from different coded senders which are hard to associate with a company/brand”; and 13% indicated “from different company/brand coded sender”. The data shows 87% of citizens surveyed say that they are receiving unwanted SMS from mobile numbers and from coded senders that are hard to associate with a company/ brand.

In summary, as the telecom regulator gets ready to implement several initiatives to check the practice of sending pesky SMS, 76% Indians surveyed confirm getting 3 or more unwanted SMS every day. In fact, registering on the DND list has not helped 8 in 10 citizens surveyed as they still get unwanted SMS. 87% of citizens surveyed say that they are receiving unwanted SMS from mobile numbers and from coded senders that are hard to associate with a company/ brand. Financial services and real estate services remain the top senders of unwanted or promotional SMS. It is to be hoped that TRAI’s latest effort to curb the growing problem of unwanted promotional messages through the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) program will be strictly followed with penalties on violators. It is not only the nuisance of getting unwanted SMS that is worrisome but also the risk it poses for the unwary who may fall into traps laid by fraudsters. It is hoped the new Indian Telecommunications Bill, 2023, together with the ‘Guidelines for the Prevention and Regulation of Unsolicited and Unwarranted Business Communication, 2024’, the proposed separate numbering series and the new TRAI measures to deter spammers will help protect the consumers against the menace of spam SMS and its negative impact.

Survey Demographics

The survey received over 41,000 responses from citizens located in 357 districts of India. 67% respondents were men while 33% respondents were women. 41% respondents were from tier 1, 35% from tier 2 and 24% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts. The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform, and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.