The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all of the four cellular mobile operators (CMOs) for implementing “Do Not Call Register (DNCR)” in true letter and spirit in the manner as provided in the Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent, and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009.
The authority has ordered Jazz, Ufone, Telenor, and Zong that since they have not come up with satisfactory replies; therefore, the licensees are warned not to repeat the same, otherwise, further legal proceedings will be initiated as per law.
The CMOs have been directed for taking all preventive measures with regard to non-disseminating messages through alphanumeric sender ID contrary to applicable regulatory regime, messages to non-opt in subscribers, non-PTA’s approved content and through non-PTA’s approved short code.
Panel headed by Maj Gen (retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa, chairman PTA, heard the issue “spamming, unsolicited and fraudulent communication”.
The licensees are required to comply with the provisions of prevailing regulatory laws comprising the Act, the Pakistan Telecommunication Rules, 2000 (the “Rules”) the PTA (Functions and Powers) Regulations, 2006 the Numbering Allocation and Administration Regulations, 2018 (the “NAAR Regulations”), the Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations 2009 (the “SPAM Regulations”) as amended from time to time and the terms and conditions of the license.
In accordance with license condition No 7.8.1 of the license, the licensee is under obligation to take all reasonable steps to track and locate and prevent the source of harassing, unsolicited, offensive, fraudulent or unlawful communication.
Moreso, under license condition No 7.8.2 of the license, the licensee shall, on the directions of the PTA, terminate or suspend service to any customer that is the source of harassing, offensive or illegal communication.
For transmission of any information through numbers allocated assigned under the NAAR Regulations, the licensee under sub-regulation (4) of regulation 14 of the NAAR Regulations is not allowed to translate, alter or delete the telephone number or other identification associated with its subscribers. Whereas, sub-regulation (5) of regulation 14 of the NAAR Regulations further provides that the licensee shall not translate, alter or delete the signalling or other data associated with all calls routed through its network.
As per sub-regulation (6) of regulation 14 of the NAAR Regulations, each party shall programme the number series in their switches in accordance with number series allocated by the Authority and National Numbering Plan issued by the authority and shall comply with the numbering provisions.
Furthermore, sub-regulation (7) of regulation 14 of the NAAR Regulations provides that the parties shall ensure that sufficient and correct numbering information is sent from one network to the other for correct delivery of domestic and international calls.
Sub-regulation (8) of regulation 14 of the NAAR Regulations provides that the parties shall convey to each other, telephone numbers in the national and international formats as contained in National Numbering Plan issued by the Authority.
Sub-regulation (9) of regulation 14 of the NAAR Regulations provides that the parties shall adopt and comply with the numbering system and number format as specified in Authority’s National Numbering Plan and framework and guidelines on the usage, allocation and assignment of numbers.
The matter pertaining to protection of consumer interests has been provided in various regulations.
For taking preventive measures as to avoid transmission of the voice or data through networks, the licensee under clause I of Annexure “A” of regulation 4 of SPAM Regulations required to develop an intelligent and robust anti-spam solution at each Operator’s end being regularly updated to cater for the changing spam content. Further, clause I of Annexure “C” of regulation 10 of SPAM Regulations provides that lists of abusers should be maintained at each Operator’s end.
Grey and Black lists should be prepared by each operator and submitted to the Authority as and when required by the Authority. A user should be placed in appropriate category on the basis of its past record. A Grey list entry should have access to limited services as compared to White list entry (meaning a list of all subscribers with clear record and one that has full access to all permissible services), whereas, connectivity for a Black list entry may be limited to receive only and making an emergency call.
In order to ensure compliance and enforcement of license conditions, the Authority time and again issued directions to the licensees for compliance. Further directed the licensees to discontinue dissemination of (i) messages through alphanumeric sender ID, (ii) messages to non-opt-in subscribers, (iii) non-PTA’s approved content; and (iv) messages through non-PTA’s approved short code with immediate effect.
However, it has been noticed that despite clear directions the licensees have miserably failed to comply with the same.
As a consequence of non-compliance on the part of the licensees, show cause notices were issued wherein, the licensees were required to remedy by the contravention by discontinuing the discontinuation of dissemination of; (i) messages through alphanumeric sender ID, (ii) messages to non-opt-in subscribers, (iii) non PTA’s approved content, and (iv) messages through non-PTA’s approved short code as well as provision of comments on consultation paper.
The licensees requested to withdraw directions on the ground that the PTA has issued consultation paper on 31st October 2019. The licenses are in compliance with all regulatory directions as and when issued by the Authority like anti-spam filters, DNCR, blocking of numbers upon complaints of customer from the PTA, blocking of number by dialling short code 420, customers are given short code of 9000 to control unsolicited communications and also provided facility of short code of 3627.
Immediate discontinuation of dissemination of messages through alphanumeric sender ID will result in severe disruption of important messages that are sent to a user base of millions. The current numbering regulations neither recognise the concept of Alphanumeric numbering/ID nor empower the PTA to approve the same.
Current regime is sufficient to cater the existing requirements of subscribers and further delineated the limitations and impracticality in implementing the proposed measures.
After careful examination of record and hearing the parties in detail. Findings of the Authority are as under: Considering the nature of case and allegations in the show cause notices, findings of the Authority on contravention is given below:
(i) Messages through alphanumeric sender ID.
At the very outset, it is clarified that alphanumeric regime for any commercial activity is not allowed. Considering the nature of case with regard to receipt of unsolicited, obnoxious or spam messages including messages through alphanumeric ID is a prime issue to take such steps in curbing this menace. The authority has not issued any approval or regulations, which allow licensees or any person to disseminate any communication messages through alphanumeric IDs. The Authority is of the view that the licensees have also failed to adhere to meet the regulatory compliances in terms of the requirements provided in NAAR Regulations which prohibits dissemination of messages through altering, modifying and translating numbering as alphanumeric. Clause (b) of sub-regulation (l) of regulation 14 of NAAR Regulations further provides that the allocation shall be used for specified purpose in the manner as approved by the Authority.
(ii) Messages to non-opt-in subscribers, non-approved contents and non-approval of short codes.
a. Current regulatory regime for dissemination of messages is based upon the basis of “opt in” and for “closed user groups”. No one is allowed to disseminate any messages to anyone without their explicit consent. It is imperative to point out that the licensee is under obligation to apply for short code for various services. All approval of short codes clearly spells out the mandatory requirement of “opt in” and for “closed users group”. All categories of application to person (A2P) messages either “Push SMS” or “Pull SMS” are not allowed to be disseminated terminated without consent of the subscribers.
b. In addition, the concept of DNCR was introduced in 2009. However, while examining the issue in hand, it has also been observed that the DNCR has not yet been implemented in true letter and spirit. Despite promulgation of Spam Regulation in 2009, no concrete development with regard to implementation of DNCR has so far been found effective. Increasing trends of complaints and excessive dissemination of unsolicited obnoxious and spamming messages, through consultation paper suggested the regime of Do-SMS-Register, which is a list of opt-in subscribers.