UNIFIED DIGITAL PLATFORM – POLITY
News: Develop digital platform for customers' consent for promotional calls,
sms: TRAI
What is in the news?
● Recently,
the telecom regulator TRAI has directed service providers to develop a unified digital platform for
Customer complaints.
Key takeaways from the news:
● The
unified digital platform is to seek,
maintain and revoke customers' consent for promotional calls and messages.
● In
the first phase, only subscribers will be able to initiate the process to
register their consent for receiving promotional calls and sms.
● In
the second phase business entities will be able to reach out to customers to
seek their consent to receive promotional messages.
● The
consent data collected will be shared on
the Digital Ledger Platform (DLT) for scrubbing by all access providers.
● TRAI
has now issued a direction to all the access providers to develop and deploy
the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA)
facility to create a unified platform.
● Access
providers, which include telecom players like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone Idea, have been further directed to use a common short code starting with 127 for sending consent seeking
messages.
● This
direction has been issued by TRAI under its Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India:
About:
● It
was established in 1997 under the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.
Objectives:
● TRAI's
mission is to create and nurture
conditions for growth of telecommunications in the country.
● TRAI
regulates telecom services including fixation/revision
of tariffs for telecom services which were earlier vested in the Central
Government.
● It
also aims to provide a fair and
transparent policy environment which promotes a level playing field and
facilitates fair competition.
Headquarters:
● New
Delhi
Composition:
● The
TRAI consists of a chairperson, two
whole-time members and two part-time members, all of which are appointed by the Government of India.
Tenure:
● 3 years or till 65 years
old whichever is earlier.
Removal:
● Central
government can remove any person at any time.
Recommendations:
● The
recommendations of the TRAI are not binding upon the Central Government.