Telecom companies that failed to stop spam calls have been fined. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has imposed fine on all four companies of the country – BSNL, Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea as well as some small companies. According to the report of Economic Times, this time a fine of Rs 12 crore has been imposed on the companies. If the amount of fine imposed earlier is also included, then the total amount is Rs 141 crore. TRAI has imposed this fine under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR). TRAI is also working on strengthening TCCCPR.
What did the companies say in their defence?
The companies say that they alone are not responsible for all this work. In a recent meeting, telecom companies demanded that along with over-the-top (OTT) platforms like WhatsApp, banks, financial institutions and telemarketers etc. should also be held responsible for spam calls. Telecom companies say that if these platforms are kept out of the rules, then spam and scam calls cannot be stopped because there is no mention of them in the law.
Companies said- we tried
During the meeting, the companies said that they have made a lot of efforts and investments to stop spam calls. Therefore, due to the mistakes of some other companies and telemarketers, they should not be fined. With this argument the companies have not yet paid the fine.
Preparation to encash bank guarantee
TRAI has written a letter to the Department of Telecommunications to encash the bank guarantees of these companies that failed to pay the fine. However, till now no action has been taken by the department on this matter. Let us tell you that companies deposit large amounts of money with the government in the form of bank guarantees.
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