The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has mandated that caller-ID and call-management applications must share user spam reports with telecom operators. These reports will be integrated into a blockchain-based platform managed by the operators to enforce anti-spam regulations.
Truecaller, which counts over 350 million users in India, has criticized the move as anti-competitive. The company argues that the requirement forces a one-way transfer of commercially valuable data from independent applications to telecom providers.
The new rules also bring automated calls and AI voice agents under the application-to-person (A2P) framework. Companies must now declare the use of such systems and the associated phone numbers to their telecom operators in advance; otherwise, these calls will be classified as spam.
Telecom operators are now authorized to charge up to 5 paise per minute for A2P calls, though certain designated number ranges remain exempt. Experts note that the regulations lack clarity regarding the specific data-sharing standards and the scope of the A2P definition for contact centers.
