96% of DND users still receive unwanted calls; 88% from financial services, real estate: Survey

New Delhi: Spam calls and messages are some of the most annoying things in a day. Do you know that 96 per cent of mobile subscribers who registered on the DND list continue to get pesky calls, and 88 per cent of calls are from the financial services and real estate sectors?

And yes, the percentage of subscribers receiving such calls daily has risen from 90 per cent to 95 per cent in six months. Recently, the telecom regulator has given orders to curb the menace of spam calls.

In this context, LocalCircles has conducted survey to find out how many of them are annoyed by such spam calls.

95% get pesky calls

On average, 95 per cent of mobile subscribers surveyed received unwanted, pesky, sales/ promotional or robo phone calls every day.

Out of 18,173 who responded to the question only 2 per cent stated that they “don’t get any such phone calls. As much as 34 per cent indicated that they get “3-5” calls every day; 20 per cent stated that they get “6-10" calls every day; and 23 per cent indicated that they get “over 10” spam calls every day.

Highest pesky calls in the financial sector

As much as 88 per cent of mobile subscribers say in the last 12 months the highest number of pesky phone calls they have received have been from the financial services and real estate sectors. From promotional offers for real estate, financial services, and car servicing to ways to opportunities to make extra income, the pesky calls fall under many categories.

The percentage of mobile subscribers who received the most pesky calls from the financial services sector has risen from 54 per cent to 66 per cent in the last 6 months.

Interestingly, If you own a vehicle or your health insurance renewal is due or you are seeking a job or looking to buy some property through online portals, the number of pesky calls you receive every day will go up manifold. The survey found that 66 per cent of mobile subscribers get the majority of the pesky phone calls from different mobile numbers that belong to individuals while 18 per cent say they come from mobile numbers belonging to companies/brands.

Efforts to tackle spam calls

Urging for a collaborative approach to tackle the problem of spam messages and calls, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked the industry if a higher tariff should be introduced for calls and SMSs beyond a certain limit in a graded manner.

The regulator feels that differential tariffs may make commercial communication using 10-digit numbers unviable for unregistered telemarketers. At a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) on August 27, TRAI discussed a new paper on measures to tighten norms around telemarketing communications.

Pesky callers

In the new discussion paper “Review of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018”, the regulator has mooted that telecom subscribers making over 50 calls or sending out even 50 SMS a day should be scrutinized as a potential pesky caller.

The new proposal follows a TRAI directive to the Telecom Service Provider (TSP) to disconnect all telecom resources of unregistered senders for making spam calls and to blacklist such senders. The blacklist/ disconnection of service will be for a period of up to 2 years.

"Information regarding the blacklisting will have to be shared by the Originating Access Provider (OAP) with all access providers on the DLT platform within 24 hours so that they too can disconnect all telecom services to the blacklisted sender within the next 24 hours. No telecom services are to be provided to the person during the blacklisted period,” TRAI stated in a notification.

Only registered entities to send MSG

The regulator had highlighted the ongoing issue of spam from unregistered entities using PRI services for bulk calls. To combat this, TRAI has mandated that all telemarketers and enterprises migrate to a blockchain-based Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform.

Only registered principal entities will be allowed to send promotional messages. Experts note that unscrupulous agents exploit (PRI) services to obtain up to 32 connections at once. Using 10 or more PRI services can provide up to 320 numbers, which are often managed by robotic dialers that persistently call even after individual numbers are blocked.

Authorities are working to identify and address the misuse of PRI services for spamming. Meanwhile, TRAI timeline for implementation of the ban on delivering messages with unwhitelisted URLs/APKs is September 1, 2024. By October 31, 2024, telcos will have to complete technical implementation for message traceability through entity and telemarketer chain binding. With these measures, TRAI aims to significantly reduce the nuisance of spam calls and protect telecom consumers from unsolicited communications.