India blacklisted 1,150 entities to combat spam

The Indian government has stepped up efforts to combat spam calls and messages. Telecom service providers have blacklisted 1,150 entities and disconnected over 1.88 million resources. This move aims to reduce the number of complaints against unregistered telemarketers. Minister Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani reported that complaints dropped significantly from 189,419 in August 2024 to 134,821 in January 2025. These changes follow updates to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on February 12. Under the new rules, customers now have seven days to report spam calls, up from three days. The time for telecom providers to act against spam messages from unregistered senders has also decreased from 30 days to just five days. The criteria for taking action against spammers has become stricter. Previously, action was triggered by ten complaints in seven days; now, just five complaints in ten days will be enough to initiate measures against a sender. These amendments will take effect 30 days after being published in the official gazette. The TRAI has also directed the disconnection of services for unregistered senders using telecom resources for spam. The government has warned telecom providers of possible fines for not complying with these new regulations.