An Android app has been launched to allow consumers to register complaints against telemarketers who spam users. Surprisingly, this app has been launched by the Indian telecom regulator TRAI, which has a series of rules to prevent SMS and phone calling spam. There are applications already in the market - India against spam is a popular one - and the TRAI app works in a similar manner. The app accesses a user’s call log and SMS list; it then displays both lists within the app itself. A user can select a single or multiple calls or SMS and then register those as a complaint with the TRAI. For this, the user needs to be registered on the Do Not Disturb registry, which the app also allows. Why is the TRAI doing this? We can only guess, but this is a welcome move from the TRAI. The problem right now is that complaints made by consumers to TRAI are largely being rejected by telecom operators, on frivolous grounds. For example: I've had instances where legitimate complaints filed for promotional messages have been rejected for not enough information being included in the message. Complaints about spam phone calls invariably get rejected, because "the communication you received was not found to be promotional in nature". There are times where the complaint never got addressed because "response from other operator was awaited". Of course, repeatedly, the transactional pipe is being used for promotional messages. For example, the message on your right. The most bizarre one: "No action has…
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