The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to conclude its ongoing pilot project on a digital consent acquisition mechanism with leading telecom operators and 11 banks by the end of January 2026. The pilot, launched in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is intended to curb unsolicited commercial communications, commonly referred to as spam.
The proposed framework, formulated under TRAI’s Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCPR 2018), seeks to replace unverifiable offline consents obtained by commercial entities for sending promotional messages with a transparent, digitally verifiable system. As part of the pilot, selected telecom subscribers have already begun receiving notifications to test the consent review and revocation process.
Further, a key challenge in the implementation has been the existence of legacy consents paper-based permissions collected by commercial entities such as banks, insurance firms, trading companies and real-estate players over the years. Access providers, including telecom operators, have indicated that verifying the authenticity of such legacy consents is practically unfeasible.
Instead of mandating fresh consent collection, TRAI has permitted the uploading of all legacy consents onto a government-created distributed ledger based on blockchain technology, enabling the creation of a tamper-proof record of user permissions.
Additionally, if the pilot proves successful, a nationwide rollout is planned, beginning with banks and subsequently extending to other commercial entities. This phase is expected to require extensive technical groundwork, the official added.
To facilitate smooth implementation, TRAI has constituted four working groups comprising representatives from telecom operators, banks, and industry associations from both sectors. These groups meet weekly to address operational and technical issues emerging during the pilot phase.
