New Delhi, 04 August (H.S.): The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken action against more than 1.83 lakh telecommunications resources, including numbers, SMS services, and telephone connections, for involvement in Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), commonly known as spam calls and SMS, during the first quarter of the financial year 2026-27 (April-June). During the period, 263 senders were blacklisted, while 2,873 SMS headers were also blocked.

According to TRAI's quarterly report, India's total mobile subscriber base stood at 1.348 billion as of June 30, 2026. Between April and June, a total of 730.82 billion calls and 691.09 billion SMS messages were transmitted over telecom networks. During the same period, 1.085 million complaints related to UCC were registered, of which 553,000 complaints were found actionable.

The report stated that for first-time violations, 137,053 telecom resources were restricted for 15 days, while 46,786 resources were disconnected for one year due to repeated violations. Additionally, 263 senders were blacklisted for a period of one year. TRAI noted that the number of UCC complaints remained significantly low compared to the overall call volume, with an average of around 1.5 complaints recorded per one million calls during the April-June quarter.

TRAI's Do Not Disturb (DND) app played a crucial role in the fight against spam communications. The app had recorded 3.316 million downloads as of June 30. Of the total 1.085 million UCC complaints registered during the first quarter, 966,000 complaints, or 89 per cent, were received through the TRAI DND app.

According to the report, 224 million consumers had registered their preferences on the DND registry as of June 30, accounting for nearly 16 per cent of the total subscriber base. Meanwhile, more than 1.12 billion subscribers have not yet registered any DND preferences, due to which they may continue to receive promotional calls and SMS from registered telemarketers and senders.

TRAI said that promotional calls from the 140 series and banking and government service-related calls from the 1600 series help consumers identify the nature of incoming communications. Between April and June, 13.16 billion promotional calls were made through the 140 series, of which 1.48 billion calls were blocked based on consumers' DND preferences. During the same period, registered telemarketers sent 248.06 billion commercial SMS messages, out of which 7.30 billion SMS were blocked according to users' DND preferences. Meanwhile, 1.15 billion service and transactional calls were made through the 1600 series.

The report highlighted that AI-based spam detection systems are also proving effective. During the first quarter, telecom service providers used artificial intelligence-based technology to identify 22.99 billion suspected spam calls and 1.44 billion suspected spam SMS messages. Overall, 24.43 billion suspected spam communications were detected, helping consumers remain cautious against such calls and messages.

TRAI further stated that a system to issue warning notifications to senders suspected of sending spam communications was introduced from June 23. Within one week, warnings were issued to more than 243,000 suspected senders.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar