The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) Rs 1.41 billion penalty on incumbent telecom carriers is reportedly based on non-compliance with the existing regulatory framework and has “no relation” to the digital consent acquisition (DCA) system.
According to TRAI, the financial disincentives were imposed not because spam originated from the networks, but for “wrong closure of customer complaints” and failure to act against telecom connections used by spammers, as mandated under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018.
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has, however, granted interim relief to the operators, putting the penalties in abeyance until the next hearing on September 19, 2025. The action affects all the telecom operators.
Meanwhile, the telcos argued that TRAI’s move was premature, since the DCA platform, central to the new anti-spam framework, was still being rolled out when the fines were levied. Countering this, the regulator told the tribunal that the penalties were specific to the operators’ lapses and not linked to DCA or other stakeholders.
As per TRAI, under the regulations, telcos must issue warnings, restrict usage, or disconnect numbers linked to unsolicited commercial communication. TRAI mentioned that operators often failed to take such action and closed many complaints without proper redressal, dismissing them as invalid.
The regulator further maintained that telcos were invoking DCA merely to divert attention from their lapses. It stressed that penalties were imposed only where no evidence of consumer consent, physical or digital, was provided by the sender.
