TRAI new rules 2026: How telecom operators will crack down on spammers; check penalties, timeline and more

Telecom operators now have stronger powers against spam callers. They can act even without consumer complaints. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued new rules under the Third Amendment Regulations, 2026.

As per the new rules, operators must take direct action against automated spammers. This includes re-verifying Know Your Customer (KYC) details, barring outgoing services, disconnecting resources and reporting repeat offenders to law enforcement.

AI detection

Every telecom operator relies on automated AI and machine learning systems to monitor network traffic. Whenever an incoming call is automatically flagged as “suspected spam”, the receiving network must inform the originating operator of the call’s origin within two hours.

Within one business day of receiving this alert, the originating operator is required to pull the sender’s unique KYC details and distribute that data across all other telecom networks.

All operators then have a 24-hour window to review their internal systems for any other connections or resources linked to that same sender over the preceding 10 days.

Penalties

Penalties are enforced against a single sender based on their aggregate activity across all networks. If five or more phone lines from the same sender are flagged within a rolling 10-day period, all telecom operators must initiate coordinated enforcement.

For a first-time violation, outgoing services on all telecom resources registered under that sender’s identity are completely barred for at least 15 days. In such cases, it doesn’t matter whether every line was actively used to send spam.

Repeat offences carry significantly stricter consequences. All telecom resources, including physical SIM cards, PRI lines and SIP trunks, are disconnected for one full year. The violator is blacklisted nationwide.

During this one-year ban, no network can issue new telecom resources to the offender. They are, however, assigned a single telephone line strictly restricted to outgoing emergency calls.

Protection for official numbers

Specific number series receive strict protections under the regulatory framework. This is to ensure legitimate public communication remains uninterrupted.

Third-party call-management software platforms, such as Truecaller, are explicitly prohibited from auto-tagging, blocking or filtering designated commercial and government channels. Such numbers include those starting with 1600.

However, this software-level restriction does not limit individual subscribers. They retain full authority to manually filter or block any number directly on their personal mobile devices at their own discretion.

Promotional messages

Subscribers who wish to stop promotional telemarketing can activate a broad block by texting the code `BLOCK PROMO` to 1909. This setting blocks all promotional commercial communications across all modes, content categories, time bands and days.

That will leave vital transactional messages, service alerts and government communications untouched. Telecom providers will automatically migrate all users previously registered under the old “FULLY BLOCK” category to the new “BLOCK PROMO” setting within 15 days of the notification.

On the financial side, terminating access providers are now permitted to charge originating providers up to five paisa ( ₹0.05) per minute. This is calculated on a per-minute pulse basis for handling Application-to-Person (A2P) traffic.

Timeline

The amended regulations officially come into force one month after their publication in the gazette, followed by a phased operational rollout. Frameworks governing A2P calling standards and interconnect fees go live after 60 days.

The remaining provisions include a blockchain-based appeal mechanism, AI-driven data-complaint corroboration tools and automatic service suspensions for senders misusing content templates. Those will take effect after 90 days.