Commercial, advertising or proselytizing calls must be identified

Calls made by the call center for proselytizing or to offer credits, cards, travel, insurance, changes to telephone plans or any other property related to direct sales must have the prior and express authorization of the line owner.

Commercial, advertising or proselytizing calls must be identified

The information was released today, February 26, 2020, by the Telecommunications Regulation and Control Agency (Arcotel).

The measures are part of a new regulation issued by this entity on February 20, 2020.

In November 2018, Arcotel and the mobile operators already signed a ministerial agreement in which the mobile operators were given a period of five months to adjust their networks and, thus, allow the identification of calls from their call centers or other companies that market their services.

Meanwhile, Arcotel promised to issue the regulations to regulate the policy for the identification of calls .

For this, the authority issued resolution 074 on February 20, which provides that each company that wishes to perform this type of service manages the prior authorization with its customers. The rule will enter into force once it is published in the Official Register.

In addition, the document states that mobile service operators and other firms that make this type of telephone contact must generate a unique number according to the purpose of the call, so that they are identified by mobile telephone users under five labels:

1. Banks, Cooperatives, Credit Cards and Insurance: Identifier “ FINANCE ”.

2. Tourist Activity, package offer, travel, airlines and other similar: Identifier: ” TOURISM “.

3. Sale of various products (for personal use, food, books, furniture, real estate and other related products): Identifier: “ SALE ”.

4. Proselytism: Identifier “ PROSELITISM ”.

5. Advanced Mobile Service Providers: identifier for each service provider .

Unique numbers may group several numbers from the call centers of the firms that belong to each sector. These numbers must be registered in the Arcotel, so that the entity notifies the operators of the mobile service and they can perform the necessary actions to perform the identification .

In the finance sector (where contacts made by banks, cooperatives, credit cards and insurance will be grouped), the list must be sent to Arcotel within 90 days of the publication of the Resolution in the Official Register.

The rest of the sectors will have a period of 120 days to send the same data.

If a user receives a call of this type and is not identified as such, he can file a complaint with the Arcotel . If the authority identifies that the number is not registered, it must be permanently suspended by the telephone operator.

The regulations explain that in the only cases in which the user’s prior authorization is not required, it is when it comes to informational calls or for collection of debts.

Calls for information related to the telecommunications service contracted by the client will be considered informative, for example, rates, prices, balances, expiration notices, billing cuts.

The Arcotel warns that there are cases in which users will not be able to see the identification. This will happen in cell phones that do not have the technological facility that allows the reading and configuration of the information of the SIM card loaded through the OTA (Over the Air) mechanism.

https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/llamadas-call-center-identificacion-arcotel.html