TRAI takes action against spam, disconnects millions of personal numbers misused for telemarketing

In a decisive move to curb spam, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has disconnected nearly 1.8 million personal numbers used for spam calls and messages and blacklisted over 800 entities in recent months.

TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti announced this during an interview, highlighting the authority's efforts to safeguard telecom consumers' privacy.

Lahoti explained that while TRAI has a structured regulatory framework for registered telemarketers, personal numbers used for unauthorized spam communications have become a serious concern. TRAI's crackdown involved extensive analysis of system misuse, leading to orders for telecom operators to remove outdated content templates and headers to mitigate spam messaging.

To further enhance traceability, TRAI has mandated that commercial calls must originate from numbers starting with the '140' prefix, and these calls are routed through a secure distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. This platform also blocks messages containing unverified links, adding a layer of protection against fraud.

For consumers registered on the "Do Not Disturb" (DND) list, TRAI guarantees that they will not receive commercial calls. In cases where legitimate service-related calls are necessary, TRAI is collaborating with industry stakeholders to allocate a separate series of numbers specifically for service and transactional communications.

Lahoti noted that these steps have already led to a noticeable decrease in spam calls and messages, adding that the telecom industry’s cooperation has been instrumental in this positive change.