Spam calls getting smarter? Here’s what TRAI’s new AI rules mean

New Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI on Friday strengthened its framework to tackle Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), bringing AI-based detection of suspected spam under the regulations and introducing a mechanism for consumers to appeal against certain actions.

Under the amended rules, telecom service providers will identify numbers considered highly likely to be involved in sending spam and share details of such numbers with other operators.

If five or more numbers linked to the same sender are flagged within a 10-day period, the matter will be investigated and graded action may follow. The measures could include KYC re-verification, physical verification, suspension of outgoing services and, in cases of repeated violations, disconnection.

TRAI has also formally defined Application-to-Person (A2P) calls as calls initiated through an application, software system or automated platform without direct human dialling. The category includes autodialling, robocalls and calls using pre-recorded or artificial voice technologies.

Entities using A2P calls will have to declare in advance their use of such services and the numbers from which the calls will be made to their telecom service providers.

Calls made without the required declaration will be treated as UCC, TRAI said. The amended framework also introduces a termination charge of up to 5 paise per minute for A2P calls, subject to specified exemptions.

"A2P calls made through any numbering series designated by authority for regulated commercial calls, and authority-authorised calls are exempted from termination charges," TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) said.

The regulator has also strengthened its complaint-based enforcement mechanism as part of the revised anti-spam framework.

The amendments further tighten safeguards against the misuse of headers and content templates. At the same time, call-management applications have been prohibited from blanket blocking, filtering or spam-tagging calls originating from designated 140xx, 1600xx and 1601xx number series.

The latest changes are aimed at strengthening the identification and enforcement process against unwanted commercial communications while creating clearer rules for automated calling systems.