India’s telecom regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has intensified its fight against unsolicited commercial communications (UCC), taking action against nearly 183,839 telecom resources during the first quarter of FY2026-27 while AI-powered systems flagged 24.43 billion suspected spam calls and SMS. The latest quarterly report highlights the scale of spam prevention efforts across the country’s telecom network, which serves 1.348 billion subscribers.
Between April and June 2026, India’s telecom networks handled 730.82 billion outgoing calls and 691.09 billion SMS. During the same period, consumers registered 1.085 million UCC complaints, of which 0.553 million were classified as actionable. This translates to approximately 1.5 spam complaints for every one million calls originated across the network.
TRAI said enforcement actions included barring 137,053 telecom resources for 15 days following first-time violations and disconnecting another 46,786 telecom resources for one year due to repeated violations. In addition, regulators blacklisted 263 senders for one year and blocked 2,873 SMS headers used for commercial messaging, strengthening efforts to curb repeat offenders.
Consumer participation through the TRAI DND App remained central to anti-spam enforcement. The application crossed 3.316 million downloads by June 30, 2026. Of the total 1.085 million UCC complaints received during the quarter, 0.966 million were submitted through the app, accounting for 89 percent of all complaints received by telecom operators.
The report also highlighted the status of Do Not Disturb (DND) registrations. A total of 224 million subscriber preferences had been registered in the national DND registry, representing only 16 percent of India’s 1.348 billion mobile subscriber base. More than 1.12 billion subscribers have yet to register any DND preference, leaving them open to promotional communications from registered telemarketers.
TRAI’s designated numbering system continued to play a significant role in filtering promotional communications. During the quarter, telecom operators routed 13.16 billion promotional calls through the 140 series, while 1.48 billion promotional calls were blocked after verifying customers’ DND preferences.
Registered telemarketers originated 248.06 billion commercial SMS, of which 7.30 billion promotional SMS were blocked because they conflicted with subscriber preferences. The report also recorded 1.15 billion calls originating from the trusted 1600 series used for banking, financial services, insurance and government communications.
AI-powered spam detection has emerged as another key pillar of TRAI’s anti-spam strategy. During Q1 FY2026-27, telecom service providers processed 721.79 billion incoming calls and 836.31 billion incoming SMS. AI-based systems identified 22.99 billion incoming calls and 1.44 billion incoming SMS as suspected spam, taking the combined total to 24.43 billion flagged communications. Starting June 23, 2026, telecom operators also issued 243 thousand warning notifications to entities suspected of sending spam, encouraging compliance before regulatory action is taken.
SHAFANA FAZAL
