Indian telecoms to launch blockchain-powered anti-spam call tech in a month: TRAI head

Indian telecoms are reportedly in their final stretch of operationalizing a new framework that aims to tackle unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) or spam messages or calls, The Economic Times reported citing Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman R S Sharma.

As per the report, TRAI is scheduled to review the progress made by the operators in the first week of this month. Sharma further added that customers will enjoy the benefits of the new TRAI-prescribed blockchain-based system in a month.

“We will review in the first week of July, as to what was the progress of each entity, but the last I reviewed – I was informed that everybody is ready or in the final stages of operationalizing it,” Sharma said.

It can be recalled that last year, TRAI made a request to the service providers to address the issue of unwanted calls and messages. The regulator has even imposed penalties ranging from INR1,000 to INR50 lakh for every violation operators fail to comply with the guidelines.

The overhaul of the UCC system ensures that customers will gain full control over messages and calls they receive and minimize fraud and fake transactions. The mandated granularity also enables customers to set their preferred days, time, and communication method (call or text) to receive commercial communications.

“This will be the first instance of implementation of the blockchain technology in this area globally, and we are looking forward to the results,” Sharma said.

The world-first technology will also hasten the turnaround of reporting complaints, as every complaint consumers file can be accessible in real-time and addressed right away.

Last month, following a successful respite of UCC, TRAI announced its plan to extend the use of blockchain technology to other areas including mobile number portability.