Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to amend "The protection from spam, unsolicited, fraudulent and obnoxious communication regulations, 2009" bill to curb unwanted and undesired massages and calls, which cause inconvenience to the users.

Under the proposed amendments, in case of delivery of SMS through a large account by a licensee to the subscribers who have not opted for receipt of such messages or the contents are contrary to the Authority approved content/text, scope or extent, the short code shall be liable to be cancelled on immediate basis.

In the SOP for Controlling of Spamming under regulation 4 of the Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009 additional clauses are proposed to be inserted according to which cellular mobile operators (CMOs) to discontinue selling bulk SMS packages unless approved by the Authority and SMS should be charged on per SMS basis. In addition, SMS charges/tariff should be uniform across the industry. The maximum number of SMS should be restricted to 500 per day per subscription.

All long distance internationals (LDIs) to establish/create large accounts with international operators subject to provision of following information to the Authority: (i) Sender ID of large account (ii) Content of SMS such as one time password, transaction acknowledgement from a bank etc.

All CMOs and CVAS registration holders to establish/create large accounts with each other subject to the following conditions: Sender ID should be set to PTA's approved short code or PTA's approved alphanumeric ID against approved short code.

Content should be PTA approved. Scope of available short codes to control such communication be extended as submitted through Way Forward below: (a) Regulation (6-10) of Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent & Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009:- Instead of Do Not Call Register (DNCR), DO Call/SMS Register will be developed and introduced so the consumer receives the desired communication only. However DNCR may continue until a Do SMS register is developed (b) Regulation 12:- Awareness campaign needs to be launched on large scale through SMS, national and local newspapers, social media accounts of PTA and FM radio.

However, awareness should be in a simple and plain language (English, Urdu and if possible primary local languages) so that it would be understandable for general public.

In case a subscriber receives obnoxious call, warning through call/text massage by the relevant operator will be issued to the caller after verification from the CDR. In case of repetition, caller number and IMEI of caller will be blocked. However, the complainant may also forward the content of SMS received on short code 9000 for verification/blocking. The action on obnoxious call/SMS shall be initiated on complaint accordingly.

In case of fraudulent/unsolicited/marketing call/SMS, number/IMEI of caller will be blocked after verification from CDR without issuing warning. The action on fraudulent, /unsolicited/marketing call/SMS shall be initiated on complaint of the consumer as stated above; in addition, the complainant may also forward the content of SMS on short code 9000 for verification/blocking.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019