Tech Mahindra has partnered with Microsoft to create a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-based solution to build a blockchain technology — on Microsoft Azure – to assist telecom operators to cut unsolicited commercial communication in India.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) earlier announced measures to remove unwanted calls and messages from the system. TRAI has urged telecom operators such as Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio and BSNL to make investment in blockchain technology to cut unwanted calls and SMS to millions of mobile phone customers.
TRAI’s Do Not Disturb (DND) registry — set up in 2010 — has only 23 crore plus mobile subscribers. This is assisting unregistered telemarketers to spam customers, obtaining their consent through fraudulent tactics.
COAI director general Rajan Mathews earlier said investment in blockchain technology will be a costly option for Indian telecom operators.
TRAI believes that blockchain technology is a powerful tool to combat the issue of spam calls and fraud risks, to protect user information.
“This Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-based solution will enable enterprises to stop financial frauds and perpetration of misleading financial information by unregistered telecom marketers who rampantly use the SMS service of telcos,” said Rajesh Dhuddu, global practice leader, Blockchain, Tech Mahindra.
Tech Mahindra said the DLT-based solution brings all the relevant parties in the ecosystem onto blockchain, helping telecom service providers and telemarketers take care of preference registration, consent acquisition, dynamic preference setting, stakeholder onboarding, header registration, template registration, scrubbing service, and complaint handling and tracking.
Tech Mahindra said the solution will be a shared, secured ledger of UCCs distributed across a network of computers, which will ensure a verifiable system to help companies mitigate UCC on their networks.
