TRAI Orders Crackdown on Spam Calls, Mandates Disconnection of Unregistered Telemarketers

New Delhi, August 13, 2024: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a stringent directive aimed at combating the surge in spam and unsolicited communications. Effective immediately, the new regulations mandate that all service providers disconnect telecom resources used by unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) and blacklist these entities.

This decisive action follows a substantial increase in complaints regarding unsolicited calls. In 2023 alone, TRAI received over 1.2 million complaints against unregistered telemarketers. The first half of 2024 has already seen more than 790,000 such complaints.

Under the new guidelines, all promotional voice calls from unregistered senders or UTMs, whether pre-recorded, computer-generated, or otherwise, must be halted. Service providers are required to disconnect the telecom resources of any unregistered sender found violating these rules. The disconnection can last up to two years, and the offending sender will be blacklisted during this period.

Details of blacklisted senders must be shared with all Access Providers through the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform within 24 hours. Consequently, these providers must also disconnect all telecom resources allocated to the blacklisted sender within the next 24 hours. No new resources will be issued to the blacklisted sender during the blacklist period.

Furthermore, all unregistered senders and UTMs using telecom resources for commercial voice calls are required to migrate to the DLT platform within one month of the directive and submit a compliance report within seven days thereafter.

Service providers are instructed to provide regular updates on their enforcement actions on the 1st and 16th of each month. TRAI’s robust measures are anticipated to significantly reduce spam calls and offer much-needed relief to consumers.