Over 10K Entities Whitelist 2.75 Lakh URLs After TRAI Directives

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that over 10,000 business entities have so far whitelisted more than 2.75 Lakh URLs. 

This is in line with TRAI’s August 20 directives, which mandated all telecom operators to stop transmitting messages that contain URLs, APKs and OTT links, which are not whitelisted by senders. It is pertinent to note that the directions came into effect starting October 1.

For the uninitiated, whitelisting simply refers to the process by which commercial messages, containing links only from approved sites, are allowed to pass through. 

“In compliance with TRAI’s August 20, 2024, directive, Access Providers have implemented mandatory whitelisting of URLs, APKs, or OTT links in messages by sending Entities,” TRAI said as per news agency ANI.

As per the report, the telecom regulator said that it has taken multiple steps to crack the whip on spam calls including blacklisting over 800 entities and more than 18 Lakh mobile numbers for non-compliance with its whitelisting directives. 

TRAI also reportedly said that it has enforced the migration of all telemarketing calls, using the 140 series, to a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, which is said to improve monitoring and reduce misuse. Additionally, authorities have blocked 3.5 Lakh unused headers and 12 Lakh content templates prone to fraud.

Adding further, the regulator added that the telcos were in the process of implementing technical solutions to ensure better message traceability. 

On top of that, TRAI also claims to have expanded collaboration with agencies, like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI), to tighten control over commercial communications. 

This comes close on the heels of reports that telecom operators were struggling to implement new mandates regarding whitelisting of URLs in commercial messages. In recent weeks, many telcos also reportedly flagged issues, before TRAI, related to declaration of final destination URL while whitelisting a short URL.

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