Telemarketers using personal numbers for spam calls or texts will now face disconnection, as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) initiates a major crackdown on spam. TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti, in an interview with NDTV Profit, explained that numbers sending spam will be blacklisted, with over 1.8 million disconnections and more than 800 blacklisted entities in the last three months.
“Spam is a significant invasion of telecom consumers’ privacy. For registered telemarketers, we have a robust regulatory framework,” said Mr. Lahoti. He noted that TRAI conducted an in-depth review of system misuse, directing service providers to remove unused templates and headers to reduce spam. Additionally, TRAI now requires messages to include the identity of the principal entity sending them.
I commend the telecom industry for its technical efforts,” Mr. Lahoti added, citing a noticeable drop in spam calls and texts. TRAI has also mandated that commercial calls use the ‘140’ series numbers, making calls traceable via a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Those on the ‘do not disturb’ (DND) registry are protected from commercial calls.
While commercial calls are necessary to avoid service disruptions, TRAI is exploring alternative number series for transactional and service-based calls. Regarding fraudulent links, TRAI’s system now blocks any message with an unapproved link from passing through the DLT platform, enabling consumers to safely open links in text messages.