TRAI Mandates Blacklisting Of Unregistered Telemarketers For Up To Two Years

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Tuesday directed telecom operators to disconnect all telecom resources of unregistered telemarketers found making spam calls and blacklist them for up to two years. 

The sector regulator also ordered telcos to comply with this directive immediately and provide regular updates on actions taken, reporting every two weeks.

TRAI emphasised that this "decisive action" is aimed at significantly reducing spam calls and providing relief to consumers, the regulator said in a statement.

The directive, issued under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, requires telcos to stop all promotional voice calls—whether pre-recorded, computer-generated, or otherwise—from unregistered telemarketers using bulk connections or other telecom resources.

TRAI warned that if an unregistered telemarketer is found misusing telecom resources to make commercial voice calls in violation of regulations, their telecom resources will be disconnected by the primary service provider for up to two years. 

Additionally, these entities will be blacklisted, and their information will be shared by the originating access provider with all other service providers on the Distributed Ledger Technology platform within 24 hours.

All telecom resources allocated to the blacklisted entities must be disconnected within the next 24 hours, and no new resources will be allocated during the blacklisting period.

TRAI also mandated that all unregistered telemarketers using SIP/PRI or other telecom resources to make commercial voice calls must migrate to the DLT platform within one month and submit a compliance report within seven days.

The regulator reiterated its commitment to tackling the growing problem of spam calls, noting that last week it warned telcos that entities found misusing bulk connections for spam calls would face disconnection and blacklisting for up to two years. 

TRAI held a meeting last Thursday with regulatory heads from all major telecom service providers, chaired by the TRAI Chief, to address this issue.