Pesky commercial calls have inundated our lives. Even as we block such numbers, hoping against hope that we don’t get such calls, the bad news is that such calls will continue to bombard us. That is because many of these callers are Unregistered Telemarketers (UTMs) who make use of their personal numbers to strike up a conversation with people. And it is impossible to track them, as per a report in The Economic Times.
These UTMs, the publication adds, are more than double the authorised telemarketers (250,000) that are registered on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform. And in the event of telcos trying to monitor such unauthorised numbers, they run the risk of flouting privacy protocols like tracking the calling patterns of individual users who have personal connections, entitled to telecom services.
The likely solution
Even though it is a knotty issue, there is one likely solution. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) or the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) can come out with a caller ID app (something similar to Truecaller) that users can download and block unwanted calls or even messages.
"The root of the pesky calls menace is the vast numbers of UTMs, and the problem won’t go away unless there’s an effective way to identify and get them registered on the DLT platform," a senior executive of a Big 3 telco, was quoted by the publication.
Another challenge that is hard to ignore is how telemarketers operate privately and purchase personal mobile connections in bulk so as to make the calls.
The role of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)
COAI is working with TRAI to implement what’s called a common framework in order to establish minimum acceptable practices in order to detect bulk UCC senders and the like.
"This will substantially reduce unsolicited commercial calls and text messages from UTMs," S P Kochhar, director general, COAI, was quoted as saying.
Another important point to note here is that TRAI has asked telcos to use a new number series for sending important voice calls for notifications related to service. It has also sought a list of suspected spammers and even scammers on a common platform.