TRAI And Distributed Ledger Technology

On September 14, 2017, TRAI issued a consultation paper on Unsolicited Commercial Communication inviting stakeholders to send in their comments and assist TRAI in improving upon Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2010. Under the said 2010 Regulations, TRAI had established a Do Not Disturb registry which allowed subscribers to register themselves to record their preferences in order to block calls and messages from telemarketers. This had failed to definitively curb spam because certain telemarketers had started obtaining subscribers’ consent surreptitiously. The present Regulations aim to address this problem by securing information cryptographically and making it available only on a need-to-know basis. In order to understand how DLT will operate as the “RegTech” for these Regulations, it is important to understand how this technology works.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) aka Blockchain

A distributed ledger is a type of database that is shared and updated independently by each participant or node in a large network. The distributed ledger records transactions among network participants. Changes to the ledger are made only when network participants agree to do so by consensus, and every record has a timestamp and unique cryptographic signature that enables accurate auditing.

Blockchain is essentially a kind of distributed ledger that records transactions in a public or private peer-to-peer network. Information is added onto the ledger in cryptographic hash-link blocks, with each new block linked to the previous block in a chain.

TRAI and DLT

The draft Regulations require access providers to record the consent and preferences of users on a consent register and a preference register respectively, using DLT. The user is further given the option to withdraw consent, if the consent is abused or is no longer relevant. This is meant to independently and cryptographically secure the user’s information to enable a consensus based bookkeeping of their consent and preferences. Consensus is key to lowering the risk of fraudulent transactions, because it ensures that all transactions are recorded with every participant’s consent. Thus, for tampering to occur, it must be approved by all the participants in the network at exactly the same time. This is enabled through consensus algorithms.

Click here to access the new regulation.

With this communication we intend to keep you informed about the multiple phases for implementing the above Regulation which is mandated the use of Blockchain technology also known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to implement the solution. All operators have already implemented the DLT system (Blockchain technology) and first phase of regulation is to register all Entity/Enterprise on New platform which is mandatory.

Go 2 Market India Pvt Ltd. is already registered as a Telemarketer on operator's DLT platform and we need you to proactively engage in this and register through the following link:

Principal Entity: https://smartping.live/entity/register-with

Documents that are required for registration are as follows

1) PAN Card, self attested by the signatory,

2) GST certificate, self attested by the signatory

3) Company Address Proof,self attested by the signatory, eg last three months telephone bill

4) Authorisation document

For corporate wanting to do self registration on the DLT platform, attached is a step wise screenshots of the process to be followed for self registration

Step1- Select New Registration and fill the relevant details

Step2-Fill the company information

Step3- Upload the company KYC documents

Step4- Authorized Personnel Information Fill the details of the authorized personnel of you company and upload the authorization letter on your letter head (Sample authorized format attached as file name –“Draft Authority letter”

Step5- Click on Submit button

Step6-You will receive a OTP, enter that and submit

Step7- Verification link will be sent on the registered email id, post the verification you will receive the login credentials on email.

Step8- Once you receive the login credentials, log in and the click on Telemarketer Request and there enter the DLT Telemarketer registration no of Go 2 Market India Pvt Ltd, which is 1702157422697906136 (if you use Go2market’s services)

Step9- Post your selection of Go 2 Market, we will approve the same through our login and Go2Market will start reflecting under the header Approved Telemarketer:

Step10-Click on Header tab & then click on New Header:

Step11-The following page will open, enter your existing Promotional & Transactional sender ids:

Please note that anyone who fails to register will become non compliant and shall not be able to send SMS. You may choose to register yourself directly alternatively you can share the required documents and we can register for you on your behalf.

The telecom operators have waived off the registration amount of Rs. 5900/- till 5th Feb’20, post which the same shall be chargeable.

For any further information/clarification you may write back to us or call on 9810868018.

Learn more about Distributed Ledger Technology