Trai weighs tougher spam rules as operators flag nearly 400 million calls daily

In an interview with Mint, Anil Kumar Lahoti, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), said the regulator is reviewing the existing framework governing telemarketers to identify areas where responsibilities are not being met and is open to strengthening the rules if required. Lahoti also said Trai is moving toward a full rollout of the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) framework, beginning with banks, after pilot results showed the system worked technically.

Lahoti, who completed two years in office last month, added that recommendations for the next spectrum auction have entered the final stages and are expected to be submitted to the government within a month.

Edited excerpts:

How is the regulator checking the spread of spam?

Trai has taken many measures to reduce the number of unsolicited commercial communication over the last year and a half. The commercial communication today is taking place through registered telemarketers. Currently, every commercial call or message is scrubbed against the customer’s preference register. As a result, approximately 75 million calls or SMS are blocked daily.

In addition, telecom operators are also flagging spam to users coming from 10-digit phone numbers to the tune of about 320 million a day, as per December data. So overall, about 400 million spam calls and messages are either being blocked or flagged on a daily basis.

What are the main challenges in curbing spam?

Trai has its DND (Do Not Disturb) App that lets users register their mobile number under DND to avoid unwanted commercial or telemarketing calls.

However, the challenge is that of the 1.16 billion mobile subscribers, only 220 million have registered their preference on the DND platform. This means that about 80% of users are still open to receiving unwanted calls. The regulator is making efforts to educate consumers on the same.

What is Trai’s stance on regulating telemarketers through a separate authorization?

It would not be correct to say that telemarketers are not regulated today. Telemarketers are regulated through the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform. No telemarketer can engage in commercial communication unless they are authorized on this platform.

Having said that, Trai is actively engaged with stakeholders to identify specific gaps where responsibilities by telemarketers are not being met. If the current rules prove insufficient, the regulator is open to strengthening the existing TCCCPR (Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations) to fix responsibilities.

Does that mean Trai is not moving ahead with a separate authorization regime for telemarketers?

We are engaged with telecom operators and telemarketers to identify any gaps and issues. We will take appropriate action accordingly.

What is the status of the user consent framework for commercial communication?

The new Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) framework aims to make consent for all promotional calls and SMS digital and visible to the consumer. They will have control to revoke these consents.

A pilot to seek user consent for these commercial communications was conducted with telecom operators and 11 banks, and the results showed that the system worked fine technically. The regulator is now moving toward a complete rollout for these entities and will involve the Indian Banking Association (IBA).

How is Trai handling legacy consents already given by users?

Banks hold a lot of legacy consents. To manage this transition without starting from zero, the regulator is allowing these entities to upload existing consents to the digital platform based on their own certification.

The regulator decided against notifying every consumer because sending crores of notifications would itself create a massive spam event. Since consumers are already receiving messages based on these consents, the status quo is maintained, but the data is digitized for better management.

However, users will be able to check their legacy consent and revoke the same once the data is uploaded to the DLT platform.

Have discussions taken place with banks on fraud prevention?

Yes, extensive discussions have taken place. As a result, banks as principal entities were required to whitelist thousands of URLs. Now, any SMS containing a URL that has not been whitelisted by the bank is blocked. Additionally, banks must ensure that any telemarketer sending messages on their behalf is strictly authorized and part of a traceable chain.

From now onwards, all service and transactional calls, such as OTPs, balance alerts, or important notifications, from banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds will originate from the 160 series numbers, while all telemarketing calls will continue to originate from the 140 series. This will help users identify genuine calls.

Reports suggest the 160 series could complicate loan recovery and increase costs for physical collection agents. How do you see this?

There were some discussions on the same, but no need for intervention was felt there. A key feature of the 160 series is that it cannot be blocked by users on the DND. We do not see visibility of the 160 numbers as the primary obstacle to recovery.

Trai is also working on the next spectrum auction. What is the timeline?

We have completed the consultation phase and are currently working on the recommendations to the government. We expect to complete the same in a month.

The last auction was held in 2024, where telecom operators bought spectrum worth ₹11,340 crore.