Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal has sent a letter to the leaders of Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), and Tata Teleservices. In the letter, Vittal proposed establishing a collaborative system for sharing information regarding corporate connections used for commercial calling. This initiative aims to monitor and prevent the misuse of these connections.
In the letter, Vittal stated, ‘We are ready to take the first step by sharing data (entity names and active numbers only) on a monthly basis using the same template. We would be very grateful for your help in this endeavor.
The letter was addressed to Reliance Jio MD Pankaj Pawar, Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra, BSNL CMD Robert Ravi, and Tata Teleservices MD Harjit Singh Chauhan.
Here’s what Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal wrote in the letter:
“As the telecom industry grapples with the growing issue of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), it has become evident that despite our ongoing efforts, more robust and unified mechanisms are necessary to protect our customers from this persistent problem,” Vittal stated. He emphasized that, in accordance with the directives of Trai and DoT, the focus remains on finding effective solutions to address UCC.
UCC in the telecom sector refers to Unsolicited Commercial Communications, which involves a blend of communication and collaboration technologies.
The speaker emphasized, ‘We genuinely believe that tackling this issue should be a collective effort among all telecom operators, rather than relying on isolated initiatives.’”
Telecom operators must take “collective responsibility” in preventing UCC by ensuring that their networks are not exploited by spammers, particularly through corporate connections that might inadvertently facilitate such activities, he noted.
“We recognize that independent efforts to combat spam may not be in the best interests of customers, as they could affect the quality and continuity of services, given that enterprise customers are served by multiple operators,” Vittal continued.
Rising Spam and Phishing Threats in India
Data from the industry shows that India experiences between 1.5 and 1.7 billion commercial messages daily, totaling around 55 billion per month. A survey by the community social media platform Local Circles indicates that 60% of consumers receive at least three spam calls a day, with financial services and real estate being major offenders. Another survey revealed that 76% of consumers get three or more spam messages daily, and blocking numbers has not proven effective.
Government Response
Many parties, including the government, regulator, and carriers, have found the issue to be unmanageable. The telecom industry was recently ordered by the government to cut off firms that were engaging in this kind of activity by means of bulk connections. 50 businesses have been placed on a blacklist and about 350,000 such numbers have been blocked in the past two weeks.
To prevent such businesses from moving from one operator to another, the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has requested that telecoms exchange information about entities that are on a blacklist.
