80% spam calls, messages move to OTT communications platforms: Telcos

Telecom operators, along with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), have said that stringent regulations have driven about 80% of spam calls and messages to unregulated over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms and internet messaging apps, and that the sector regulator should bring these platforms under its regulatory framework.

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea said that while their networks are strictly regulated with KYC (know your customer) mandates, header registrations and AI-driven spam filters, OTT applications enjoy lighter oversight, helping fraudsters bypass the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) attempts to curb spam messages and calls.

“There has been a massive shift with the telecom operators implementing strict government mandates and AI-driven spam filters on SMS and voice networks, over 80% of the fraud traffic and the unsolicited spam is now migrated to the OTT communication platforms,” COAI said.

Representatives of OTT apps, however, highlighted that during the drafting of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, a conscious decision was made to keep the regulation of OTT infrastructure under the domain of the IT ministry.

The Broadband India Forum (BIF) noted that the Supreme Court has established that delegated legislation cannot transgress the boundaries of its parent statute, making TRAI’s attempts to regulate internet apps legally questionable.

They were speaking at an open-house discussion on Wednesday organised by the TRAI on amendments to the draft telecom commercial communications customer preference regulations.

The draft regulations had proposed use of artificial intelligence to tag and also block incoming spam calls. While this drew support from telecom operators, they highlighted that currently doing so requires high-confidence thresholds which current AI models are not able to provide. They also cautioned that integrated AI-based spam flagging into the complaint management system will overload the current system of Distributed Ledger Technology introduced by TRAI to maintain a log of spam calls.

OTT players did not explicitly endorse TRAI’s proposal during the call. Instead, they opposed TRAI’s mandate to regulate their independent spam-filtering operations.

Truecaller, a call management app, vehemently opposed TRAI’s proposal to prohibit them from tagging or blocking incoming calls from commercial 140 and 160-series numbers as spam. They also opposed TRAI’s mandate to share user-generated spam reports to TRAI’s do-not-disturb registry.

“The crowdsourced user feedback and algorithms these apps use to compile spam databases are highly valuable, proprietary corporate assets. Forcing CMAs (call management apps) to free share these reports with telecom operators amounts to forcing them to surrender their property,” Internet and Mobile Association of India said.

Telecom operators, though, were divided on TRAI’s proposal to introduce a targeted regulatory framework for robocalls, including a deterrent charge to penalise mass unsolicited calling, particularly driven by new AI voice agents that do not require human capital to operate.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel supported implementing a deterrent charge, such as 50 paise per minute for robocalls, arguing that it acts as an economic disincentive against spammers. The BIF supported even extending these charges to call attempts to deter high-volume dialing.

State-run BSNL and enterprise users such as DHL opposed such charges, arguing that increased fees will severely penalise essential, time-sensitive transactional communications such as voice-based OTPs, delivery coordination and banking alerts. They warned that these costs will simply be passed down to consumers, rather than stop spammers.