NEW DELHI, March 20: In an effort to combat the rising issue of spam calls, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has amended the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018. The amendments, announced on February 12, 2025, introduce stricter measures to improve the response times and effectiveness in addressing Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), as confirmed by an official statement from the Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

One of the key highlights of the amended regulations is the extended complaint window. Customers can now file complaints about spam or UCC within 7 days of receiving the communication, a notable increase from the previous 3-day limit. This extension aims to provide more flexibility for consumers to report spam effectively.

Additionally, the regulations have introduced a significant reduction in the action time against unregistered telemarketers. The time frame for access providers to take action against those who send unsolicited commercial messages has been drastically reduced from 30 days to just 5 days. This change is designed to ensure faster response times and more efficient enforcement against spam.

Another important amendment involves stricter criteria for triggering action against spam senders. Under the previous regulations, action would only be initiated after 10 complaints were filed against a sender within a 7-day period. The revised rules lower the threshold to 5 complaints within 10 days, allowing for quicker intervention.

These changes will come into effect 30 days after being published in the Official Gazette, with certain provisions set to be enforced after 60 days.

The amended regulations build on TRAI’s earlier directive issued on August 13, 2024, which mandated the disconnection of all telecom resources used by unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) for making spam calls. Since the implementation of this directive, telecom operators have carried out extensive actions, which have contributed to a significant decrease in complaints against UTMs—from 1,89,419 complaints in August 2024 to 1,34,821 in January 2025. Additionally, over 1,150 entities and individuals have been blacklisted, and more than 18.8 lakh telecom resources have been disconnected.