The Union Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today informed Parliament regarding complaints of spam and widespread action for curbing spam calls and SMS as detailed under:

 

The number of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) complaints received by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for the period January 2025 to December 2025 is as follows:

 

 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) governs UCC under the regulatory framework viz. Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR). TRAI has adopted two-pronged strategy, which involves provisions for legitimate commercial communications by the registered entities, and measures to curb UCC from unregistered senders. Notable actions taken by TRAI are as follows:

1. As per TRAI’s mandate, more than 3 lakh senders and 21,000 telemarketers have registered on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform. 
2. A customer who does not want to receive promotional communication from (RTM), can register their preferences and lodge complaint against UCC within 7 days through any of the following means –
   1. using TRAI Do Not Disturb (DND) Mobile App,
   2. through TSPs App or Web portal,
   3. by sending SMS to short code to 1909,
   4. by calling on 1909.

In addition to above channels, complaints can also be lodged on Sanchar Saathi portal of Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

3. In December 2025, more than 7.5 crore SMS and voice calls were blocked per day by DLT system on an average, based on the preferences of the customers.
4. TRAI has mandated the use of – (a) 140 series numbers for making promotional calls, and (b) registered headers for sending any commercial SMS.
5. Based on the complaints received, it is observed that majority of the UCC is from UTMs who use regular 10-digit numbers instead of 140 series bypassing the DLT platform and therefore customer preferences. To tackle this, major TSPs have implemented AI-based solutions to detect suspected spam and alert the customers. 
6. TRAI issued directions to TSPs on 13.08.2024, to disconnect all telecom resources of the UTMs for making commercial calls in violation of TCCCPR. Through TCCCPR amendments in Feb 2025, provisions for action against the UCC senders was further strengthened. The actions now range from immediate suspension of connections to disconnection of all the connections of the UCC sender across TSPs. Subsequently, around 21 lakhs telecom connections have been disconnected.
7. TRAI has prescribed to use special 1600 series for financial sector for making service and transactional calls to enable consumers to distinguish such calls with strict timelines of implementation.
8. TRAI has imposed Financial Disincentives (FDs) of Rs. 153.8 crore on TSPs for closing UCC complaints in contravention of the provisions of the TCCCPR.

 

(RS-STARRED PQ 74; 05-02-2026)

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