Trai is suggesting new financial discouragements for providers who permit robocalls and a large amount of junk SMS messages to go through their networks. The suggested rules are to stop a quick increase in automatic, unwanted business messages that are coming from less expensive ways and better automation tools.
Ending Charge and Financial Penalties
Trai suggests an ending charge of up to 5 paise a minute for voice calls that come from a provider’s network and are found to be robocalls. This is for calls from numbers not in the 1400 or 1600 series and would be paid to the provider who gets the message.
At present, there is no ending charge for domestic voice calls in India, although business SMS already have an ending charge of up to 5 paise. Trai said making a per-minute charge will stop people from wrongly using person-to-person (P2P) routes for a lot of application-to-person (A2P) calling.
The regulator also wants harder money penalties for providers who wrongly register or permit incorrect SMS titles and message forms. Under the present rules, Trai can put fines of up to 10 lakh rupees for each time there is a failure to stop junk mail.
AI Finding, Blocking Power, and Quicker Action
Trai officially accepts AI and machine learning systems for finding and filtering junk mail calls and messages and wants these tools put into the regulatory structure. Providers must not only warn customers but also take regulatory action when AI shows suspicious activity.
For the first wrong act, the suggestion is to stop all numbers and lines of the sender for 15 days if an AI system shows them and there are at least three complaints within 10 days. SMS forms that are wrongly used must be stopped until the sender fixes the problem. People who do this again risk being cut off for up to a year and being put on a black list.
The regulator suggested lowering the number of complaints to three customer complaints within 10 days for action to start, down from five before. Trai also wants providers to check the sender’s KYC again and do a physical check if suspicious activity goes on.
Duties for Businesses and Main Groups
The suggestion makes the duty of ‘Main Groups’ who send business messages or calls stricter, needing stronger checks on registered marketers and filtering of customer choices. A lot of callers must say before they use A2P calling; not saying will make calls unwanted business communication (UCC) and start enforcement action.
Trai accepted the technical problem of telling robotic calls from legal person-to-person traffic apart. To limit damage to important services, the regulator said important groups like banks and some government bodies may have lighter action when needed.
Providers must also name a senior management worker as an Appeals Authority to deal with customer appeals about junk mail complaints. Appeals must be put in within 15 days and solved by the named authority within 15 days of getting them.
Regulatory Background and Next Steps for Those Involved
These actions are part of suggested changes to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018, which were changed before in 2018 and again in February 2025 to deal with changing junk mail methods. Trai made the current changes to make rules match new calling technologies and AI finding skills.
Those involved may put in comments on the suggestion by April 12, with answers due by April 27. If taken, the changes would make phone providers and businesses improve finding systems, make registration and KYC checks tighter, and face bigger penalties for mistakes.
Taken as a whole, the changes aim to move accountability up the line, raise the cost of harmful a lot of calling, and make regulatory reaction quicker. What happens will depend on how providers put AI tools in, balance customer safety with service going on, and how quickly the industry and regulators solve remaining technical and operating problems.
