In all new fresh efforts, TRAI has again extended the message traceability compliance deadline to December 10, the press release stated. Additionally, the deadlines would kick in from December 11. 

Why Has The Deadline Been Extended? 

After an assessment of the progress made by the industry in the declaration of the respective PE-TM chain, the TRAI decided to extend the deadline. While it has directed the telcos to continue sending warnings and notices to the Telemarketers who have yet not implemented necessary changes. 

How Many Telemarketers Have Been Registered? 

As of 30 November 2024, over Twenty-Seven Thousand Principal entities (PEs) have already registered themselves with the respective Access Service Providers, while further registration of the remaining PE continues. 

Who Else Falls Under This? 

To create awareness, communications were sent to various Sector Regulators (RBI, SEBI, PFRDA, and IRDAI), Central & State government Departments, and other organizations by TRAI requesting them to sensitize the PEs under their jurisdiction for early compliance with the regulations. 

Extensive Communication & Enrichment 

To ensure proper communication & implementation, TRAI arranged webinars in association with the Access Providers which were attended by representatives of entities such as PEs, TMs, Central & State Government departments, Sector Regulators, and Industry associations. For direct engagement with PE &TM (s), additional webinars, email communications, and interactive sessions were arranged by the respective Access providers. 

How Will it be Implemented? 

With effect from 11th December 2024, any traffic (messages) where the chain of Telemarketers is not defined or does not match with the pre-defined chain shall be rejected. PEs and TMs have been again advised to expedite the declaration of chains on priority as any message that fails to adhere to the traceability regulation will be rejected with effect from the 11th of December 2024.

What are Traceability Guidelines? 

The regulator has issued a set of instructions to help identify the source of messages and match them with an established system to prevent spam or fraudulent content from reaching users' inboxes. This introduces an additional layer of prior approval, going beyond the previously unregulated telecom ecosystem.

Safe and Secure Ecosystem 

As part of TRAI's mission to reduce spam, over 800 entities and individuals have been blacklisted, and more than 1.8 million mobile numbers and telecom resources have been disconnected. This represents a significant step in cleaning up the system from unwanted commercial calls.

Through this initiative, TRAI aims to address the issue of spam and create a safer telecom environment. The regulator has implemented various measures to prevent the misuse of headers and content templates, ensuring consumer safety. Just a month back, TRAI had also called on telecom companies to cut ties with unregistered telemarketers.