TRAI tightens anti-spam rules, brings AI-based detection, automated calls under framework

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) amended its Unsolicited Commercial Communications framework on Friday to add artificial intelligence-based detection of suspected spam and to bring automated Application-to-Person (A2P) calls under regulation. Under the amended rules, telecom service providers must flag numbers with a high probability of being used for spam and share that information with each other, with five or more flagged numbers tied to one sender within 10 days triggering KYC re-verification, physical verification, barring of outgoing services and disconnection for repeated violations. TRAI also defined A2P calls as those initiated by an application, software system or automated platform without direct human dialling, including autodialling, robocalls and pre-recorded or artificial voice technologies, and introduced a termination charge of up to 5 paise per minute for such calls with specified exemptions.

New Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI on Friday tightened its framework to curb Unsolicited Commercial Communications UCC , incorporating artificial intelligence-based detection of suspected spam into its regulations and introducing consumer appeal mechanism..Under the amended regulations, telecom service providers will identify numbers with a high probability of being used for sending spam and share the information among themselves..Where five or more numbers associated with a sender are flagged within 10 days, further investigation and graded action will follow, including KYC re-verification, physical verification, barring of outgoing services and disconnection in cases of repeated violations..TRAI has also defined Application-to-Person or A2P calls as calls initiated by an application, software system or automated platform without direct human dialling, including autodialling, robocalls and pre-recorded or artificial voice technologies..TRAI rejects Congress bid to send SMS with documentary link on Maharashtra poll fraud.Entities using A2P calls will have to pre-declare their use and the numbers being used to their telecom service provider, while calls made without such declaration will be treated as UCC. A termination charge of up to 5 paise per minute has also been introduced for A2P calls, with specified exemptions.."A2P calls made through any numbering series designated by authority for regulated commercial calls, and authority-authorised calls are exempted from termination charges," TRAI Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said..The amendments also strengthen complaint-based action..TRAI has also strengthened safeguards against misuse of headers and content templates and prohibited call-management applications from blanket blocking, filtering or spam-tagging calls from designated 140xx, 1600xx and 1601xx series.