India forces caller-ID apps to feed spam reports to telcos
Truecaller says the one-way sharing requirement would hand a commercially valuable proprietary asset to telecom operators.
The Indian government has expanded its anti-spam measures to compel caller-ID and call-management applications to provide spam reports to telecommunications companies. This decision was made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which mandated these apps to forward spam reports to a blockchain-based platform managed by telecom operators.
The aim is to create a more substantial spam report repository, enabling the telecom industry to take actions against spammers effectively. Truecaller, a leading spam-blocking app, criticized this move as anti-competitive, as it transfers valuable data from apps like Truecaller to telecom operators. Truecaller, which is based in Stockholm and serves over 350 million users in India, noted that the new rules do not apply to calls made using designated number ranges for promotional, service, or transactional communications.
Meanwhile, TRAI also introduced new rules regarding software and AI voice agents, requiring companies to disclose their use and phone numbers with telecom operators. Telecom operators can now impose a termination charge of up to 5 paise per minute on automated calls, except for those within certain designated ranges.
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