Trai asks top regulators to apply whitelist norms

To tackle the problem of spam messages and calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), various sector regulators, and government agencies to implement the mandatory whitelisting or registration of internet links, Android application packages (APKs) and call back numbers sent through text messages by September 1.

- SUBHAYAN CHAKRABORTY

At a meeting of the joint committee of regulators (JCOR) convened by Trai, the telecom regulator urged upon the need for a joint effort to put a check on the problem of spam messages and calls, stressing that "the timeline fixed by Trai's latest directions needs to be enforced." Trai had set the end of August as the deadline for telecom operators to stop all text messages containing unregistered URLS and APKs in a bid to curb rampant phishing attacks. URL is essentially the link for a website, or the address of a unique resource on the internet, while an APK is an executable file that contains all the data needed to install and run an Android app.