The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed telecom service providers to create a unified digital platform within two months to seek, maintain, and revoke customers’ consent for promotional calls and messages. The move comes as an effort to tackle the problem of pesky calls and SMS messages that have been a nuisance for customers for years.
TRAI has asked subscribers to initiate the process of registering their consent for receiving promotional calls and SMS in the first phase. Later, business entities will be able to reach out to customers to seek their consent to receive promotional messages. TRAI said in a statement on Saturday that it has issued a directive to all access providers to develop and deploy the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) facility for creating a unified platform and process to register customers’ consent digitally across all service providers and principal entities.
Currently, there is no unified system for customers to show their consent for receiving promotional messages. The absence of a unified digital platform makes it impossible for telecom operators to check the authenticity of consent. Under the prevalent system, consent is obtained and maintained by various principal entities such as banks, other financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities, real estate companies, etc.
TRAI has allocated two months to develop such facilities by all access providers and thereafter implement it in a phased manner. This direction has been issued by TRAI under its Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018. The DCA process will have the facility to seek, maintain, and revoke the consent of customers, as per the processes envisaged under TCCCP Regulation 2018. The consent data collected will be shared on the Digital Ledger Platform (DLT) for scrubbing by all access providers.
Access providers such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea have been further directed to use a common short code starting with 127 for sending consent-seeking messages. The statement issued by TRAI mentioned that the purpose, the scope of the consent, and the principal entity or brand name shall be mentioned clearly in the consent-seeking message sent through the short code. Only whitelisted or approved web or app links, callback numbers, etc. will be allowed to be used in the consent-seeking messages.
Furthermore, access providers shall develop an SMS, IVR (interactive voice response), online facility to register unwillingness of the customers to receive any consent-seeking messages initiated by any principal entity.
TRAI’s directive is a welcome move as it will help customers get rid of the menace of pesky calls and SMS messages. By creating a unified digital platform, it will be easier for telecom operators to verify the authenticity of consent and maintain records. The move will also help customers to have complete control over the promotional messages they receive.
Leave a Reply