TDSAT to take a call on Trai fine on telcos for failing to curb spam
telecom operators
need to pay nearly Rs 141 crore as penalty to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for not curbing spam.
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The tribunal is hearing the matter after
telcos
challenged the Trai, arguing that they should not be penalised for the time when the anti-spam platform was being implemented.
At the last hearing held on August 8, the regulator had filed an affidavit containing the requisite details sought by the tribunal, and the next hearing is scheduled for August 20. The telcos are also expected to submit their response to the affidavit.
The regulator had levied penalties on all three private telcos -
Reliance Jio
,
Bharti Airtel
and
Vodafone Idea
- as well as state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) for failing to control spam.
However, the operators challenged the levy arguing that the regulator should not have slapped the penalties when an anti-spam platform was still being developed.
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The TDSAT had stayed Trai's penalties in January.
The fines were levied as part of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018.
The telcos argued that the delay in implementation of
spam control
measures was caused due to Covid-19 and that they were not responsible for it. To support their point, they submitted details to the TDSAT stating that when Trai imposed the penalties, the digital consent
acquisition
(DCA) platform was still being deployed.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had already rejected the
demand
for Trai to encash bank guarantees of telcos for not paying the fine.
While staying the penalties in its January 28 order, the TDSAT observed that telecom firms were not responsible for the delay in implementation of the regulations, including the DCA. "Thus, it is unfair and arbitrary on the part of the respondent to impose financial disincentives on the appellants (telcos) for something which was beyond their control," it said in the order.
While the issue of spam has been tackled by multiple stakeholders, the results remain less than satisfactory. The telcos have been asking for telemarketers to be brought under regulatory control, a move supported by the DoT but so far, Trai is yet to move on the issue.
Trai's current mechanism to curb spam communications puts the onus on telcos to check the menace, while telemarketers, who are at the heart of aggregating and disseminating commercial messages using telco channels, are not under any regulatory ambit, and practically not accountable, said industry experts.
Trai currently levies fines on telcos for spam messages and calls on their networks. Telcos have commercial binding agreements with telemarketers and, as per Trai, operators should recover the penalty from telemarketers.
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