The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will further strengthen rules around pesky communications, including increasing penalties, as it looks to curb the menace hurting mobile phone consumers.
According to Anil Kumar Lahoti, chairman, TRAI, TRAI will also come out with a consultation paper in the coming months to tighten the rules.
He noted that TRAI will work on curtailing people calling from normal 10-digit numbers to make promotional calls. The government has made 140 numbering series for promotional calls, but the same series was available for service and transactional calls. In addition, the allotment of numbers for 160 series is in progress, that will further help curtail pesky communications.
Further, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has also come out with draft rules to curtail pesky communications, terming them as unfair trade practices.
Furthermore, various departments of the government are working together. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already launched a platform named ‘Chakshu’ to report fraud communications. Additionally, TRAI and DoT will also collaborate with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to create a helpline for consumers to lodge complaints against pesky calls. They will also collaborate with the consumer affairs ministry’s Jago Grahak Jago initiative to spread awareness about the helpline number.
