Latest news with #TelecomCommercialCommunicationCustomerPreferenceRegulation
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Trai says telcos start '1600' number series rollout for BFSI sector
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai ) said that the incumbent telecom carriers have been implementing a '1600' series as a number prefix in numbers for consumers to identify calls originating from genuine banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies. 'Currently, we are focusing on the implementation of the 1600 series. This series has been allotted for transaction and service calls for the banking, financial and insurance (BFSI) sector,' Anil Kumar Lahoti , Chairman, Trai, told ETTelecom. Further, the top official said that the 1600 series initiative in the BFSI sector will 'give a lot of credibility' to voice calls and consumers can identify it as a transactional service, and not meant for a promotional purpose. The move comes following the sector watchdog holding multiple discussions with stakeholders, including incumbent telecom service providers. 'The work is in progress, so the number series has been given to the service providers and now the principal entities are taking the numbers from them. We have also requested the respective sectoral regulators to advise the entities regulated by them for early adoption of this system,' Lahoti said. Some of the BFSI entities, such as the State Bank of India (SBI) Card, according to the regulator, have already started the rollout of the new number series. Lahoti further said that the sector watchdog eventually aims to mandate all service and transaction calls routed through the new series, including those coming from large commercial entities. 'So, we have started from the BFSI sector, it will take some time to complete it, then we will take up other sectors also,' he added. READ MORE | Telcos voice concern over Trai's new spam norms In 2022, Trai formed a Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) that includes representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The JCoR agreed to mandate the BFSI sector with necessary directions to prevent misuse of headers and content templates and to curb unauthorised calls using telecom resources under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018). In April this year, the joint committee discussed the modalities for the implementation of 1600 series numbers allocated to transactional and service voice calls by the entities belonging to the government and financial sector. The deliberations followed the onboarding of senders of commercial communication on the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) platform.
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Telcos start '1600' number series rollout for BFSI sector: Trai's AK Lahoti
NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai ) said that the incumbent telecom carriers have been implementing a '1600' series as a number prefix in numbers for consumers to identify calls originating from genuine banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies. 'Currently, we are focusing on the implementation of the 1600 series. This series has been allotted for transaction and service calls for the banking, financial and insurance (BFSI) sector,' Anil Kumar Lahoti , Chairman, Trai, told ETTelecom. Further, the top official said that the 1600 series initiative in the BFSI sector will 'give a lot of credibility' to voice calls and consumers can identify it as a transactional service, and not meant for a promotional purpose. The move comes following the sector watchdog holding multiple discussions with stakeholders, including incumbent telecom service providers. 'The work is in progress, so the number series has been given to the service providers and now the principal entities are taking the numbers from them. We have also requested the respective sectoral regulators to advise the entities regulated by them for early adoption of this system,' Lahoti said. Some of the BFSI entities, such as the State Bank of India (SBI) Card, according to the regulator, have already started the rollout of the new number series. Lahoti further said that the sector watchdog eventually aims to mandate all service and transaction calls routed through the new series, including those coming from large commercial entities. 'So, we have started from the BFSI sector, it will take some time to complete it, then we will take up other sectors also,' he added. READ MORE | Telcos voice concern over Trai's new spam norms In 2022, Trai formed a Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) that includes representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The JCoR agreed to mandate the BFSI sector with necessary directions to prevent misuse of headers and content templates and to curb unauthorised calls using telecom resources under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018). In April this year, the joint committee discussed the modalities for the implementation of 1600 series numbers allocated to transactional and service voice calls by the entities belonging to the government and financial sector. The deliberations followed the onboarding of senders of commercial communication on the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) platform.
Time of India
06-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Telcos seek rules to tackle spam via business communications
India's top telcos Reliance Jio , Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have called on the Department of Consumer Affairs (DOCA) to urgently notify guidelines aimed at preventing spam through business communications. In a letter written last week to DOCA secretary Nidhi Khare through industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the telcos said the guidelines can bridge the regulatory gaps, which are being exploited by spammers. "We respectfully reiterate that the department may, under the powers conferred by Section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, kindly notify the said guidelines at the earliest," COAI said. Telecom executives and experts believe that the DOCA through the guidelines can curb unwanted communications from all stakeholders like unregistered telemarketers, including over the top (OTT) players. Such players currently evade any action either from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) or the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). While Trai has prescribed Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), it only caters to registered telemarketers. But even through the rules, the telecom operators are made the primary stakeholders, while telemarketers remain out of bounds. The DoT had written to Trai to send recommendations for regulating telemarketers but the sectoral watchdog is yet to come out with a consultation paper.
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Telcos seek rules to tackle spam via business communications
India's top telcos Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have called on the Department of Consumer Affairs (DOCA) to urgently notify guidelines aimed at preventing spam through business communications. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Pakistan's economy has much more to lose than India's due to the ongoing tensions, warns Moody's Ratings The day Pakistan got the power to poke India FM Sitharaman meets ADB chief and Italian FM, discusses economic issues; no mention of Pakistan In a letter written last week to DOCA secretary Nidhi Khare through industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the telcos said the guidelines can bridge the regulatory gaps, which are being exploited by spammers. "We respectfully reiterate that the department may, under the powers conferred by Section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, kindly notify the said guidelines at the earliest," COAI said. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Telecom executives and experts believe that the DOCA through the guidelines can curb unwanted communications from all stakeholders like unregistered telemarketers, including over the top (OTT) players. Such players currently evade any action either from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) or the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). While Trai has prescribed Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), it only caters to registered telemarketers. But even through the rules, the telecom operators are made the primary stakeholders, while telemarketers remain out of bounds. Live Events The DoT had written to Trai to send recommendations for regulating telemarketers but the sectoral watchdog is yet to come out with a consultation paper.
