TRAI disconnects 21 lakh telecom resources in 2025 spam crackdown

NATIONAL: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has escalated its campaign against spam calls and messages, disconnecting telecom resources at scale and tightening penalties on repeat offenders.

According to its 2025 enforcement report, the regulator issued 7,31,120 notices to unregistered telemarketers during the year, signalling a tougher stance on Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC).

Penalties rose sharply for those who failed to comply. Around 4,73,075 entities faced one-month communication bans, while 89,936 repeat offenders were barred for six months. A further 1,84,482 telecom resources were disconnected entirely. Since August 2024, the cumulative number of disconnected resources has crossed 21.05 lakh, effectively dismantling large parts of persistent spam networks.

Consumer reporting played a central role in the crackdown. In 2025, users registered 31.09 lakh UCC complaints, with more than half, 17.06 lakh, filed via the Do Not Disturb (DND) app. App adoption surged, with installations rising 84.43 per cent year-on-year to 28.08 lakh, up from 15.22 lakh in 2024.

Trai chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti, said the focus was not only punitive action but a “perceptible improvement” in consumer experience. He said the regulator was pursuing a two-track approach: enabling legitimate, consent-based communication through registered channels while deploying AI-led spam detection and distributed ledger technology to identify and eliminate rogue operators.

Trai noted that unregistered telemarketers account for the overwhelming majority of UCC complaints, reinforcing the regulator’s view that stricter enforcement against non-compliant players is key to restoring consumer trust in telecom communications.