Avoiding spam calls in India will become easier soon
What's the story
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a new directive, mandating telecom operators to take action against pesky callers flagged by their artificial intelligence (AI)-based caller ID systems. The move comes as part of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026. Under this regulation, operators are required to restart the Know Your Customer (KYC) process for senders identified as spammers and take appropriate action against violators.
Information sharing
Key highlights of the new regulation
As per the new regulation, telecom operators receiving an incoming call flagged as "suspected spam" by their AI, will have to share details of such calls with originating access providers (OAPs) within two hours.
The OAPs are then required to identify unique KYC identifiers of the sender associated with these calls, and share those details with other telecom operators within one business day.
Network scrutiny
Identifying suspected spammers
The new regulation also mandates all telecom operators to check their systems for any other connections linked to the suspected spammer in the last 10 days.
If five or more called line identifications (CLIs) of the sender have been identified within this period, all concerned OAPs are required to take action against that sender.
This is part of a broader effort by TRAI to curb spam calls and protect consumer interests.
Penalty
Sender KYC violations
For the first violation detected by the AI system, all telecom resources allotted to the sender will be barred for 15 days.
This is regardless of whether those resources were actually used in making such communications.
For subsequent violations, all telecom resources of the sender will be disconnected by all access providers for one year, irrespective of actual usage in making such communications.
Blacklisting
Other key amendments
The new regulation also mandates that violators will be blacklisted for a period of one year, during which no new telecom resources shall be provided by any operator.
However, they will still get one telephone number with outgoing services barred. This number can only connect with notified emergency outgoing services.
The rule also prohibits call management apps like Truecaller from tagging or blocking calls from certain number series designated by the authority for commercial and government communication purposes.
Blocking mechanism
New blocking mechanism for telemarketing calls
The amended rule also introduces a new blocking mechanism for telemarketing calls.
Subscribers wishing to block all categories of telemarketing calls will have to send a text message with the code BLOCK PROMO to 1909.
This option will only block promotional types of commercial communications, not transaction and service types or government communications.
All preferences registered under the FULLY BLOCK category will be migrated to BLOCK PROMO category within 15 days of this notification.