The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has barred more than 1.24 lakh telecom resources from outgoing services and blacklisted 374 entities for one year after violations of unsolicited commercial communication rules during July-September, according to its quarterly report for the second quarter of 2026-27.
The action covered mobile numbers and other telecom resources used for commercial communications. TRAI said 1,10,325 resources were barred from outgoing services for 15 days after a first violation, while 13,777 resources were disconnected for one year following repeat violations. The regulator also blocked 3,725 SMS headers and barred 374 senders from obtaining fresh telecom resources for a year.
The enforcement followed 15.29 lakh complaints about unsolicited commercial communications during the quarter. Of these, 7.23 lakh were classified as actionable. The complaints were recorded against a national telecom network that carried 714.01 billion outgoing calls and 702.28 billion SMSes during the period. TRAI reported a spam complaint rate of around 2.14 per million outgoing calls.
The TRAI DND App remained the main reporting channel, accounting for 14.21 lakh complaints, or 92.9% of the total. The application had recorded 42.36 lakh downloads by September 30. More than 22 crore consumers had registered their communication preferences on the Do Not Disturb registry by that date, representing 16.64% of the country’s 134.9-crore subscriber base.
The report said more than 112 crore subscribers had not registered communication preferences and remained accessible to commercial communications from registered senders and telemarketers. TRAI also said it conducted consumer awareness campaigns through radio, television, newspapers and social media, alongside 322 physical programmes involving around 31,000 participants. More than 3 billion SMSes were sent to promote the DND App.
Telecom operators’ artificial intelligence-based systems identified 19.9 billion incoming calls and SMSes as suspected spam during the quarter. This included 18.28 billion calls and 1.62 billion SMSes. Operators issued more than 45.9 lakh warning notifications to entities suspected of sending spam and conducted electronic know-your-customer verification of 34,025 suspected senders. A total of 9,977 senders were disconnected after failing the e-KYC process.
TRAI has also expanded dedicated numbering systems intended to help consumers distinguish promotional communications from service and transactional messages. Promotional calls use the 140 series, while the 1600 series is intended for service and transactional calls from banks, financial services and insurance companies, as well as government-to-citizen communications. A separate 1601 series was introduced on August 10 for service and transactional calls from utilities, logistics and delivery companies.
During the quarter, 15.27 billion promotional calls originated through the 140 series, of which 1.70 billion were blocked after verification against registered Do Not Disturb preferences. Registered telemarketers also originated 660.71 billion commercial SMSes, while 11.09 billion promotional messages were blocked after preference verification.
TRAI said the quarterly enforcement data was compiled using information furnished by telecom service providers. The latest measures place the reporting app, consumer preference registry, operator-level detection systems and sender verification process at the centre of the regulator’s continuing effort to control unsolicited communications.
