India cracks down on spam calls: TRAI orders immediate halt to unregistered promotional calls

To combat the rising tide of spam calls plaguing Indian consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a directive demanding an immediate cessation of all voice promotional calls originating from unregistered senders or telemarketers. This decisive action, announced on Tuesday, aims to bring much-needed relief to frustrated mobile phone users across the country.

The directive mandates that all access service providers, including telecom operators, must immediately stop facilitating pre-recorded or computer-generated promotional voice calls from unregistered sources. “All promotional voice calls from the unregistered senders/unregistered telemarketer (UTMs) using telecom resources shall be stopped immediately,” stated TRAI.

Furthermore, TRAI has outlined strict penalties for those found violating the new regulations. If an unregistered sender or telemarketer is discovered to be misusing telecom resources for commercial voice calls and generating consumer complaints, the originating access provider (OAP) is obligated to disconnect all telecom resources allocated to that sender for a period of up to two years.

To ensure comprehensive enforcement, TRAI has stipulated that information regarding blacklisted senders must be shared among all access providers via the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform within 24 hours. This collaborative approach aims to swiftly and effectively block unregistered telemarketers from accessing telecom resources. “No new telecom resources shall be allocated to such sender by any Access Provider during the period of blacklisting as provided for in the regulations,” emphasised TRAI.

To monitor progress, all access providers have been instructed to submit regular updates on their compliance efforts on the 1st and 16th of every month. This stringent monitoring process underscores TRAI's commitment to eradicating spam calls and protecting consumers.

TRAI expressed confidence that this decisive action will significantly curb the nuisance of spam calls and provide much-needed respite to consumers. “This decisive action by TRAI is expected to significantly reduce spam calls and provide relief to consumers,” stated the regulatory body.