TRAI imposes Rs 150 cr penalty on telecom operators

The telecom regulator TRAI has imposed a penalty of Rs 150 crore on telecom operators for their failure to curb spam calls and messages, according to an official source. The Rs 150 crore penalty imposed for three years beginning 2020, however, has been challenged by telecom operators.

“Financial disincentives of more than Rs 150 crore have been imposed on the telecom service providers for wrong closure of customer complaints and not taking action on telecom connections of spammers in accordance with regulations,” the source said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) imposes penalties on telecom operators who fail to comply with regulations that impose financial disincentives. The regulations provide for a financial disincentive of up to Rs 50 lakh per month per licensed Service Area for a telecom operator.

“It is important to note that the financial disincentives are imposed on TSPs (telecom service providers) not because someone has sent through their network, but because they fail to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Regulations, on the telecom resources of spammers. “While action on the consumer complaints is the key to controlling spam, during audit of complaints, Trai has observed many cases of wrong closures of customer complaints by the TSPs,” the source said.

Trai has disconnected over 21 lakh spammers and blacklisted more than 1 lakh entities in the last year. About 18.8 lakh spammers’ connections were disconnected, and more than 1,150 entities were blacklisted in September 2024, consequent to the direction issued by Trai on August 13, 2024.

Although the regulatory framework provides for taking action against unregistered senders by the telecom service providers, which ranges from suspension of connections to disconnection of all the connections for one year and complete blacklisting of the sender across all telecom service providers in the country, the trigger for action comes from customer complaints only, the source said. Trai has rolled out a DND app, which enables users to register complaints in just 4-6 clicks. “While registered telemarketers have been subject to strict regulations, the majority of spam now originates from unregistered individuals using 10-digit mobile numbers.

“Consumer complaints are the key mechanism to trigger action against spam since a sender is identified as a spammer on the basis of the number of complaints received against them in a given time. Blocking numbers on phones alone does not stop spam, as spammers frequently change their numbers. Complaints enable action across all operators,” the source said.

Trai has tightened rules to curb pesky calls and sms. Consumers can make complaints against unregistered senders without registering their DND preferences. The regulator also has a complaint window extended from 3 to 7 days, meaning a subscriber can register a complaint against pesky callers within 7 days of receiving a call or SMS.

Trai has also tightened the criteria for taking action against spammers. Now, five complaints against the sender in the last 10 days are sufficient to trigger action against them. The regulator has mandated the use of 1,600 series numbers as a prefix by entities in the banking, financial services, and insurance sectors for transactional and service calls, and by

Government entities for calls to citizens. The rule mandates sending promotional SMS with the suffix P, transactional SMS with the suffix T, service SMS with the suffix S, and Government messages with the suffix G.Number promotional calls allowed from regular 10-digit mobile numbers, said officals.