Concerned about the increasing number of annoying telemarketing calls and text messages, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed all telecom service providers on Thursday to reverify registered headers and message templates on distributed ledger technologies (DLT) platforms and block all unverified headers and message templates within 30 and 60 days, respectively.

The telecom regulator stated in a new directive that mobile operators must ensure that temporary headers are deactivated immediately after the time duration for which such headers were created.

The new guidelines were issued by TRAI to providers to prevent the misuse of headers and message templates as well as unauthorized promotions using telecom resources.

The telecom regulator instructed mobile operators to eliminate message recipient confusion and misuse, and no look-alike headers (headers that are similar due to a combination of the small case or large case letters) are to be registered by access providers in the names of different principal entities.

“Access providers have been directed to prohibit all telemarketers who are not registered on the DLT platform from handling message template scrubbing and message delivery to recipients through Access Providers’ network,” according to the TRAI note, a IANS report stated.

It directed mobile operators to take action against erring telemarketers following the regulations, as well as to initiate actions following applicable legal laws.

All telecom service providers have been given 30 days to comply with the above instructions.

Earlier this week, a survey found that two out of every three Indians receive three or more annoying calls per day, with half of those receiving calls from personal numbers.

According to IANS, which conducted the survey, 45 percent of people receive three to five bothersome calls per day on average, while 16 percent receive 6-10 such calls per day.

Around 60 percent received the most calls related to “selling financial services,” 18 percent received the most calls related to “selling real estate,” and 10 percent received the most calls related to “offering a job/earnings opportunity.”

On February 17, TRAI scheduled a meeting with mobile phone operators to discuss the quality of wireline and wireless services.