New Delhi, 18 September (H.S.): The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has introduced comprehensive changes to its regulations to curb spam calls and unsolicited commercial communications (UCC). The revised provisions include AI-based monitoring, swift action against spam callers, an appeal mechanism for consumers and stricter controls on robocalls.

According to the Ministry of Communications, TRAI has implemented the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026. Under the new framework, telecom service providers will be required to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify numbers involved in spam calls and share information about such numbers with one another.

If five or more numbers associated with the same sender are found to be suspicious within a period of 10 days, an investigation will be initiated and action will be taken in a phased manner.

The revised regulations also bring application-to-person (A2P) calls under tighter controls. Prior declaration will now be mandatory for calls made through auto-diallers, robocalls and recorded voice systems. Such calls made without prior disclosure will be treated as unsolicited commercial communication.

TRAI has also tightened the process for handling complaints related to spam. If three or more complaints are received against a number within 10 days and the AI-based system also flags the number as suspicious, action can be initiated against it. Previously, at least five complaints were required to trigger such action.

For the first time, consumers have also been given the right to appeal against the outcome of a complaint. Complainants will be able to file appeals through the TRAI DND app, their telecom service provider's portal or by calling the 1909 helpline.

The new regulations also provide for the recognition of existing consent records, provided that the consent was obtained through a verifiable process and registered on the digital platforms of telecom service providers.

TRAI has further tightened provisions against the misuse of headers and content templates. In such cases, the concerned header or template will have to be suspended within six hours. If the involvement of a telemarketer is established, all of the telemarketer's telecom resources may be suspended for one year, and the entity may also be blacklisted.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar