The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has tightened rules for call-management applications, placing new conditions on how apps can identify and report suspected spam calls.

Under the amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, call-management applications will not be allowed to let users report unsolicited commercial communications as “spam” or “junk” unless those reports are also sent to the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform maintained by access providers.

The regulator has also barred such applications from blanket blocking, filtering or tagging calls from designated commercial number series. These include the 140xx series used for regulated promotional calls and the 1600xx and 1601xx series designated for service and transactional communications. Individual users will continue to be able to block or filter calls on their own devices.

The move affects call-management platforms such as Truecaller. The company had earlier said it complied with directions concerning calls from the 140 and 1600 series, while introducing a badge based on user feedback to identify such calls.

TRAI brings AI-based spam detection into regulatory framework

The wider amendments strengthen the role of telecom operators in identifying suspected unsolicited commercial communications. Telecom service providers will have to identify sender customer-line numbers (CLIs) that have a high probability of being used for UCC and share information about suspected senders with other operators.

If five or more CLIs linked to a sender are flagged within 10 days, access providers can begin further investigation and graded enforcement. Measures can include KYC re-verification, physical verification, suspension of outgoing services and, in cases of repeated violations, disconnection of telecom resources.

TRAI has also lowered the threshold for complaint-based action when operator-level AI detection supports the complaints. Action can be initiated when there are at least three unique complaints within 10 days and the sender CLIs is simultaneously flagged by the telecom provider’s AI/ML system as suspected UCC.

Automated and A2P calls face new requirements

The amendments formally bring Application-to-Person, or A2P, calls under the regulatory framework. These include calls initiated by applications, software systems or automated platforms without direct human dialing, including autodialled calls, robocalls and calls using pre-recorded or artificial voices.

Entities using A2P calling will have to declare this activity to their telecom service provider in advance, along with the CLIs they intend to use. Calls made without the required declaration will be treated as UCC. TRAI has also introduced a termination charge of up to ₹0.05 per minute for A2P calls, with exemptions for calls made through designated numbering series for regulated commercial communication and authority-authorised calls.

Commercial calls after customer inquiries limited to seven days

TRAI has also specified a seven-day window for commercial communication following a customer’s inquiry about a product or service.

The inquiry must be made either in writing or digitally and retained by the sender in a verifiable form. TRAI said the provision is primarily intended to facilitate e-commerce and e-service platforms.

Consumers will additionally get a formal appeal mechanism for UCC complaints. Appeals can be filed before the Appellate Authority within 15 days through available complaint channels, including the TRAI DND app, telecom operators’ apps or portals, and calls or SMS to 1909.

The regulator has also strengthened action against misuse of headers and content templates. Misused headers or templates must be suspended within six hours of the originating access provider becoming aware of the misuse. Where the misuse is attributed to a telemarketer, its telecom resources across service providers can be disconnected for one year, along with blacklisting.

TRAI said the amendments are intended to strengthen accountability among stakeholders, improve consumer confidence in commercial communications and enable faster action against misuse of telecom resources.