Regulators
Trai plans appeal option in DND app; MyCall relaunch in March
NEW DELHI: India’s telecom regulator is sharpening its tools against spam and poor call quality, with a fresh round of upgrades to its consumer apps and a new appeals feature in the works.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said the authority plans to introduce an appeals option in the Do Not Disturb app, allowing users to escalate complaints if they are unhappy with the telecom operator’s response. The feature is currently under development, with no launch date announced.
The move comes as spam complaints continue to pile up. Of the 31 lakh unsolicited commercial communication complaints recorded in 2025, more than half were filed through the DND app. The new appeals mechanism is expected to plug gaps where complaints are closed by operators with incorrect or unsatisfactory reasons.
Lahoti was speaking at the unveiling of revamped versions of the regulator’s consumer-facing apps. The updated DND app will come with multilingual support, simpler complaint steps, improved preference controls and better handling of dual-SIM phones. Users will also be able to identify the sender behind SMS headers or numbers in the 1600 series directly through the app.
The overhaul comes nearly a decade after the apps were first launched, reflecting the scale and speed of today’s telecom ecosystem. Regulators say the updates are designed to match changing user behaviour, rising digital connectivity and the persistence of spam calls and messages.
The authority has also widened its enforcement net to include unregistered telemarketers. Once five unique complaints are logged against a sender, outgoing services across all linked numbers are barred for 15 days. Repeat violations can lead to disconnection of telecom resources for up to a year and blacklisting across operators.
So far, more than 7.3 lakh notices have been issued to unregistered telemarketers. About 4.7 lakh have faced month-long restrictions, nearly 90,000 repeat offenders have seen six-month communication caps, and over 1.8 lakh telecom resources have been disconnected.
Alongside the DND revamp, the regulator will roll out a refreshed MyCall app in March. The new version will allow users to report call drops, muting and voice distortion, giving authorities clearer insight into real-world call quality.
Another upgrade is coming to the MySpeed app, which will now support multilingual use and test speeds across 5G, fixed broadband and Wi-Fi. It will also measure jitter and packet loss, helping users understand why video streaming or web browsing sometimes stumbles despite high headline speeds.
With these updates, the regulator hopes to make its apps less of a formality and more of a frontline tool for everyday telecom complaints.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
