TRAI moots termination charges to tackle spam

Mumbai: In a bid to curb spam calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed imposing termination charges on commercial calls made by businesses to consumers. Commercial calls, commonly known as Application-to-Person (A2P), are frequently misused to make bulk spam calls by disguising them as regular person-to-person calls, TRAI noted. To discourage this practice, the regulator has proposed introducing termination charges on A2P calls, similar to the charges imposed on commercial SMS messages.

However, certain categories of calls would be exempt from these charges, including communications related to government services, emergency alerts, public safety messages and cyber-security warnings, the regulator said. According to draft amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018, released Friday, TRAI shall also allow telecom companies use of artificial intelligence (AI) based spam detection tools. Currently, these systems primarily warn customers about suspected spam calls. Under the proposed framework, telecom operators could also use AI-generated intelligence to initiate enforcement actions against suspected spammers.

Meanwhile, the regulator has also acknowledged that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between calls made by humans and those generated by automated systems or AI-based voice technologies. To address this, TRAI has proposed that entities using automated calling systems must declare the use of such systems in advance.


TRAI is also tightening the rules around how businesses claim customer consent before sending promotional messages or making marketing calls. Under the current framework, companies could send commercial communications if they had an existing relationship with the customer, such as a purchase or transaction within the past 12 months, or even an inquiry about a product within the last three months. TRAI proposes removing these provisions, saying they have been misused by businesses to justify unsolicited messages long after a transaction or inquiry was made.