The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has directed mobile operators not to activate international long distance calling on pre-paid cards without taking the user’s consent.
The regulator has told the operators to ask all existing pre-paid card subscribers if they wanted to have ISD services or not within the next 60 days. All subscribers who do not give consent will not have ISD services after the 60 day deadline.
Currently, international long distance calling facility is given to all pre-paid users by default. The service is disconnected only if the subscribers make a request.
But now the TRAI wants the system to work the other way round wherein the ISD service will be made available only to those who ask for it.
The TRAI has taken this decision after some consumers complained about missed calls from international telephone numbers, which are often premium numbers charging high tariff, prompting the consumers to make call to such numbers.
Consumers’ complaints
TRAI has also been receiving complaints from consumers about calls and SMS from international numbers informing them about winning of prizes or lottery and prompting consumers to call a particular number to claim the prize or lottery money.
These numbers are often premium tariff numbers sometimes as high as Rs 200 a minute.
The scammers hire a premium-rate number from a telecom provider and then give missed calls to unsuspecting people. As the latter call back, they pay a higher charge and a part of the money goes to the account of the scammer who hires the premium number.
Wangiri
Such calls are termed as Wangiri, a Japanese word which literally means -One (ring) and cut. This phone fraud originated in Japan and involves a computer using hundreds of phone lines to dial mobile numbers at random. The numbers appear as missed calls on the recipients' phones. Believing a legitimate call was cut off, or simply curious, users are enticed to call back. The TRAI order would prevent unsuspecting customers from making the call back.
But mobile operators said that the TRAI order would lead to revenue losses to them from genuine international calls. “Only a small percentage of users are getting affected by such calls, so what’s the need of taking such a drastic step,” said Rajan Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India.
TRAI has asked operators to inform all pre-paid subscribers having ISD facility, through SMS, within ten days that ISD facility of the subscribers shall be discontinued after 60 days and if such subscribers want to continue with ISD facility, they should give their explicit consent for availing such facility.
But a similar order from TRAI on activating value-added services issued in 2011 has not been implemented yet.
TRAI’s dictat
Discontinue ISD services of all pre-paid subscribers who have not given consent.
Inform through SMS, within ten days to pre-paid consumers not to respond to missed calls from unknown international numbers with prefix other than “+91”.
Provide easy and transparent opt-in and opt-out facility to the consumers for activation or deactivation of ISD facility.