Indian telcos to cut off scammy, spammy, telemarketers for two whole years

India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) on Tuesday directed telcos to stop calls from unregistered telemarketers – and prevent them from using networks again for up to two years – as part of an effort to curb spam and scams.

"This decisive action by the TRAI is expected to significantly reduce spam calls and provide relief to consumers," explained a statement [PDF] from the regulatory authority.

As many sources of spam and scam calls target both India's domestic market and offshore entities, this move may be good for Reg readers around the world.

When a telco bans a telemarketer for breaking the rules, they must share the information with other telcos within 24 hours on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.

The other telcos then have 24 hours to cut off all phone lines or services they had given to that spammer – ensuring the person can't continue to be a nuisance by jumping to another carrier. At least until the two-year block expires.

TRAI placed a deadline of one month for data describing unregistered senders to be moved to the DLT platform. Telcos have one week thereafter to submit a compliance report to the authority.

Additionally, all telcos will be required to submit twice-monthly updates listing the spammers they've canned.

It all sounds perhaps gleefully cutthroat, but in actuality an unregistered telemarketer is currently given [PDF] three chances before they are banned. The first violation earns them a warning, while a second offense see their usage capped for six months.

Telcos themselves decide whether or not the caller violates India's anti-scam-and-spam regulations based on complaints received. The companies are required to set up a system to process and resolve those complaints.

The regulatory authority was motivated toward this change after receiving a surge of complaints over the past 18 months, during which it received 1.2 million gripes against unregistered telemarketers in 2023 and nearly 790,000 in the first half of 2024.

Furthermore, actions previously taken to curb the nuisance have resulted in subpar results. One reason telcos haven't been able to rid themselves of the annoyance is the carriers would only disconnect one number at a time instead of cutting off all an offender's resources. In the past, telemarketers could also easily circumvent any blocking by switching telco providers.

TRAI also reckons the new rules should help stop scamming scum.

It introduced the blockchain-powered scamlist to manage the registry of known miscreants, in the hope it would shrink the scourge. However, the method had some challenges – including hiccups with its one-time login codes. The method also didn't ensure registration of all relevant entities.

Still, between early 2021 and late 2022, the number of complaints over telemarketers within India's borders reduced by 60 percent.

While a solid improvement, it was not enough for TRAI, which declared in November 2022 that it would incorporate AI to tame the nuisance.

No update was given on the effect of the AI rollout or its efficacy. ®