TRAI Tightens Rules on Cold Calls, Spam Offenders Face Action

India’s telecom regulator has made rules for unwanted sales calls stricter.

Companies must have proof that a customer agreed to receive a call after making an enquiry.

That enquiry can be used for commercial calls for only seven days.

The enquiry must be written or digital and kept in a form that can be checked.

Telecom companies will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to find likely spam numbers.

If five or more numbers connected to one sender are flagged within 10 days, the sender may face checks or have services suspended.

Repeat offenders may be disconnected.

Companies making automated or recorded calls must also declare them, while call-management apps cannot label entire commercial number ranges as spam.