To protect consumers from unwanted promotional calls and messages, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday released a consultation paper, seeking public comments to address the issue of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC).

The public comments are sought on the “Review of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018)” paper that was implemented in February 2019 to address the issue.

The broad issues discussed in the consultation paper includes definitions of commercial communications, provisions related to the complaint redressal, UCC detect system and action thereof, provisions related to financial disincentives, provisions related to senders and telemarketers and analysis of high number of voice calls and SMS.

According to the telecom regulator, these regulations aim to protect consumers from unwanted promotional calls and messages, while allowing businesses to send targeted communications to customers who have consented for or set preferences to receive them.

TRAI said that during implementation of the regulatory frameworks, certain issues have been observed.

“This consultation paper aims to bring forward issues observed during implementation, and which need immediate attention. The provisions of regulations related to these issues may need amendment,” it added.

The paper seeks input on areas to strengthen the regulations, including stricter provisions against the unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) who harass the public through spam calls, improved complaint redressal mechanisms, more effective UCC detection systems, stronger financial disincentives for violation of regulatory provisions, and revised regulations for senders and telemarketers.

The comments on the consultation Paper are invited from the stakeholders by September 25, said TRAI.

Meanwhile, the government has urged industry stakeholders to protect mobile users from spam and fraud. TRAI, in a meeting with representatives from IRDAI, PFRDA, RBI, SEBI, MoCA and MeitY, stressed the need for a joint effort to tackle the problem of spam messages and calls.

The government has observed several instances of misuse of headers and templates. Fraud usually takes place through the transmission of malicious links using the variable parts of the messages.