NEW DELHI: You may soon get some relief from the unending nuisance of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) or spam calls including robo-calls and pre-recorded/artificial voice technologies. Now, commercial communications can be sent to a customer on the basis of an inquiry made in writing or through digital only for a week. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has tightened the rules to prevent misuse of telecom resources for sending UCC and will use AI for spam detection, automated calls, and will take strict action against repeat offenders into the regulatory net.Now action will be triggered against the sender if of UCC as soon as there are three or more unique complaints within 10 days and the concerned sender’s calling line identification (CLI) is also flagged by the AI/ML-based system as suspected of sending UCC. Consumers will now be able to appeal against the resolution of UCC complaints.Amending the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR, 2018), TRAI has also cracked down on application-to-person (A2P) which are made without direct human dialling and include using autodialing, robo-calls and pre-recorded/artificial voice technologies. “Every entity using A2P calls must pre-declare such use to its telecom service provider (TSP) along with the details of calling line identification (CLIs) to be used for making such calls. A2P calls made without the required prior declaration will be treated as UCC. To act as a deterrent, a termination charge of up to 5 paisa per minute has been introduced” on such catering entities, said a TRAI statement.TRAI has now mandated TSPs to identify the sender’s CLIs having a high probability of being used for sending UCC and share the information among the TSPs. “Where five or more CLIs associated with a sender are flagged within 10 days, further investigation and graded action will be initiated by the access providers, including KYC re-verification, physical verification, barring of outgoing services, and disconnection of telecom resource in cases of repeated violations and misuse of telecom resources,” said the statement.Special series designated for commercial communications, including the 140xx, 1600xx and 1601xx series will not be flagged as suspected spam for recipients, said TRAI on Friday while introducing the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026.
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TRAI has introduced a consumer appeal mechanism where the same can be made “through any of the modes available for lodging UCC complaints (like) TRAI DND App, TSPs App/Portal, and call or SMS to 1909 besides the modes specified under TCCRR, 2012.”TRAI has expanded the definition of consent to include legacy consents already available with the entities. The framework is being amended to enable the recognition and digitisation of such legacy consents. “However, the legacy consents shall be considered valid only where they have been obtained through verifiable means and are subsequently registered on the Digital Platform of the TSPs.”TRAI has introduced a new regulation where it can classify senders UCCd into different categories and may specify differentiated sets of enforcement measures applicable to such categories of senders for violations of the regulations.
