In a bid to curb the misuse of telecom resources and enhance consumer safety, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has introduced a significant overhaul of its regulations. The new measures will help improve spam detection, strengthen consumer protection with holding telecom operators accountable. TRAI has amended Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018. This aim to combat unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) while ensuring legitimate marketing activities operate within a transparent framework.
The measures follows the process initiated on August 28, 2024, where TRAI had sought industry feedback on key regulatory gaps. The amendments focus will tighten norms against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs). Which in follows preventing the misuse of 10-digit numbers for marketing. By doing this, TRAI beleives that it will enhance consumer complaint mechanisms, and increasing accountability for senders and service providers.
Telemarketers Shouldn’t Use 10-digit Numbers
In the amendment, TRAI has restricted commercial usage via standard 10-digit mobile numbers. Telemarketers can use a designated series of numbers. the ‘140’ series will continue for promotional calls, while the newly allocated ‘1600’ series will be used for transactional and service calls.
Can Easily Report Complaints, Faster Action
Consumers can now lodge complaints against spam messages and calls from unregistered senders without any pre-registering their communication preferences. The complaint process has also been simplified- any report containing essential details will be treated as valid.
Now you can report spam calls and messages within seven days, previously they had only three days. Earlier telecom operators were supposed to take action within 30 days on UCC complints. Now they must resolve complaints within 5 days.Additionally, the threshold for penalising senders has been lowered—from requiring 10 complaints in seven days to just five complaints within 10 days.
Furthermore, telecom companies are now required to make it easier for users to report spam or unwanted calls/messages by clearly displaying complaint registration options on their mobile apps and websites, ensure better transparency, making the reporting process more transparent and user friendly.
Stronger Penalties For Repeated Violations
TRAI has introduced tough penalties for habitual offenders. First-time violators will face a 15-day suspension of outgoing telecom services. If they repeat the offence again they will see that their telecom resources—including PRI/SIP trunks—disconnected across all service providers for a year, followed by blacklisting. To ensure compliance, TRAI has put strict financial penalties in place for telecom operators who fail to enforce the new regulations. The fines begin at ₹2 lakh for the first violation, increase to ₹5 lakh for the second, and rise to ₹10 lakh for every repeated offence after that.
