2025 TCCCPR Amendments: A Renewed Push by TRAI for Order in Commercial Communications

I. Introduction

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (‘TRAI’), on 12th February 2025, made amendments (‘2025 Amendments’) to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations 2018 (‘TCCCPR’) to enhance customer protection against Unsolicited Commercial Communication (‘UCC’).

TCCCPR 2018 served a dual purpose — protecting customers from UCC while enabling businesses, i.e. Principal Entities (‘PEs’), to reach customers who have either opted for their services or set preferences allowing such communication. On 28th August 2024, TRAI issued a consultation paper on the review of TCCCPR 2018. The consultation addressed several critical issues, including the reclassification of commercial communication categories, enhancing costumer complaint redressal mechanisms, tightening threshold norms for action against UCC, increasing accountability for Senders and Telemarketers, and preventing the misuse of 10-digit numbers for telemarketing, among others. Stakeholder comments were requested in response to the consultation paper and based on the inputs received, TRAI has notified the 2025 Amendments. 

This article highlights the most notable amendments, providing an overview of their impact on stakeholders. 

II. Applicability of the TCCCPR

TCCCPR brings multiple stakeholders under it’s ambit, mandating strict compliance from Access Providers, PEs, and Telemarketers. By doing so, the framework ensures that all parties involved in commercial communication adhere to the prescribed guidelines, reducing UCC. Given below are the stakeholders and their definitions as provided in the TCCCPR:

   1. Access Providers:

As per Regulation 2(b) of TCCCPR, “Access Provider includes the Basic Telephone Service Provider, Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Provider, Unified Access Service Provider, Universal Access Service Provider and Virtual Network Operator (VNO) as defined in the respective licenses issued by Department of Telecommunications (DoT).” Eg. Airtel, Jio are Access Providers as they operate telecom networks that facilitate voice and SMS communication.

   2. Principal Entity:

Senders/ PEs are the businesses or legal entities that send commercial communication. E.g.. SBI qualifies as a PE as it is a registered organisation that sends commercial communications such as transaction alerts, loan reminders, and promotional offers to its customers. 

   3. Telemarketer: 

As per Regulation 2(bp) of TCCCPR, “Telemarketer means a person or legal entity engaged in the activity of transmission or delivery of commercial communication or scrubbing or aggregation.” Eg. SMS India Hub, is a Telemarketer registered with an access provider that provides services of transmission of commercial communication.

III. Evolution of TCCCPR

The table below presents the key regulatory developments in TCCCPR over the years:

IV. Key Provisions & Amendments

   1. Consent framework

The updated consent framework strengthens the rules for commercial communication by clarifying the distinctions between explicit and inferred consent. Consent is a key pillar of the regulation, ensuring that commercial communication respects user preferences while allowing certain commercial interactions.

1. As per Regulation 2(k) of TCCCPR, “Consent means any voluntary permission given by the customer to the Sender to receive commercial communication related to specific purpose, product or service. Consent may be explicit or inferred as defined in these regulations.”

   
   

2. As per Regulation 2(ah) of TCCCPR, “Inferred Consent means any permission that can be reasonably inferred from the customer’s conduct or the Relationship between the Recipient and the Sender.”

In 2025 Amendment, the following provisos have been added to the definition of Inferred Consent: 

“Provided that such consent shall not extend beyond duration/ discharge of the contract between the Sender and the Recipient:

Provided further that in case of commercial messages, such Consent may be clearly and reasonably inferred from the registered Content Template.”

The Explanatory Memorandum (‘EM’) to the 2025 Amendment notes that, in cases including banking and finance, relations usually extend beyond 12 months where seeking consent for communication may result in information loss, hence inferred consent is deemed valid for the duration and till discharge of the contract between the Sender and the Recipient. 

  c.   Explicit consent as per Regulation 2(y) of TCCCPR means “such consent as has

been verified directly from the Recipient in a robust and verifiable manner and recorded by Consent Registrar as defined under these regulations.”

The 2025 Amendment provides that where explicit digital consent exists, the commercial communication may override the subscriber’s blocked preferences (i.e., DND registration).

   2. Categories of  Commercial Communication

Commercial Communications are categorised based on the content of the communication and the consent obtained from Recipients. The amended regulations establish clear distinctions between different types of communication, ensuring that customers receive only relevant and authorised communication. Consent plays a crucial role in determining how and when such communication can be sent, with specific guidelines for each category.

1. UCC: This refers to any commercial communication that does not align with the Recipient's consent or registered preferences, making prior approval from Recipients essential for compliance. Exceptions to UCC include Transactional messages or calls, Service messages or calls, and any communications directed by government bodies, constitutional authorities, or expressly authorised agencies for public interest purposes.

   The newly inserted proviso in to Regulation 2(bw) stipulates that commercial communication made by an Unregistered Sender shall be treated as UCC.

   
   

2. Service communication: These are communications made to existing customers/subscribers regarding already availed products/services (based on inferred consent) OR to facilitate or complete a commercial transaction for purchase/use of product/services (based on explicit consent valid for 7 days). 

   
   

   As per the EM, “the definition of Service Messages or Voice Calls has been amended to limit it to the communications by Senders with the existing customers or subscribers based on the inferred consents to provide information relating to any product or service such as, to provide product/warranty information, product recall information, software upgrade alerts, safety or security information for the commercial product or service used or purchased by the customer, periodic balance alerts, information regarding delivery of goods or services; or to a recipient to facilitate or complete a commercial transaction involving the ongoing purchase or the use by the recipient of the product or services offered by the sender after obtaining explicit consent from the recipient.”   

   
   

   To prevent the misuse of explicit consent, thus acquired, its validity shall be limited to a maximum of 7 days or as directed by the TRAI from time to time.

   
   

   An example of a Service communication would be where an insurance company obtains explicit digital consent from a customer through OTP confirmation. Within 7 days of this consent, a Telemarketer makes a service call on behalf of the company. As long as the call is purely service-related and does not involve promotion, upselling, or cross-selling, it qualifies as a Service communication. However, if any promotional element is introduced, it would be categorized as a Promotional call. A workaround here may be for the PEs to again obtain consent from the users in order to extend the validity for another 7 days.

   
   

3. Transactional communication: Based on the amended Regulations, these include communications triggered within 30 minutes of transactions such as OTPs from banks, app-logins, etc and do not require explicit consent of the Recipient.

   
   

   It must be kept in mind that if service content is mixed with Transactional communication, it will qualify as a Service communication.

   
   

4. Promotional communication: Communications promoting or advertising product or services, and can be delivered only to those who have not blocked such communications, or have given their consent in the Consent Register. However, if Sender has acquired explicit digital consent, then such message shall be delivered irrespective of their preferences registered. 

   
   

   As per the EM,  “if any promotional content is mixed with any other type of commercial communication, then that Message or Voice Call shall be treated as a promotional communication. Accordingly, the definition of promotional messages and voice calls has been amended. As transactional and service communication with inferred consent as well as government communication are in the interest of the customers, it is not desirable to allow the customers to block or opt-out from such communication. Allowing recipients to block or opt out from such communication may result in loss of critical and important information for the recipient.”

   
   

   If the content of the call is purely to facilitate or complete the transaction, then the calls would be covered under the category of Service Calls.

    

   3. Calling from Designated Series

The Amended Regulation 3 reinforces the use of special series for commercial communication. Access Providers must ensure that such communication occurs only through registered headers or assigned number resources.

As per the EM, to improve transparency and accountability in commercial communication, Access Providers must ensure that all commercial calls originate exclusively from a designated number series assigned by the DoT/Authority for this purpose. Entities using undesignated number resources for commercial communication will be subject to suspension or disconnection of their telecom resources under the updated regulatory provisions. This measure is designed to prevent unauthorized and fraudulent activities while ensuring that all commercial communications remain traceable to their legitimate sources.

The designated number series are as follows:

1. 140-series calling: all Promotional calling has to take place using 140 series numbers. If a user has fully blocked its preferences, the user won’t get these calls unless there is explicit consent, in which case such consent shall override previous preferences.

   
   

   An example of a 140 series calling would be a call made to a customer offering admission to a college. However, if the customer has opted out of such Promotional calls, the call will not go through due to the scrubbing mechanism in place, the system will block the call before it reaches them.

   
   

   As seen above, the 140 series was first introduced in 2011 and was further reinforced with the Amendment of TCCCPR in 2018. Since then, various guidelines and circulars have mandated the enforcement of 140 series calling. Additionally, the EM to the 2025 Amendment also mandates its use for Transactional commercial communication. Despite these measures, the implementation has faced significant delays and inconsistencies.

   
   

   An example of Promotional Communication is when a customer has a 12-month maintenance contract with a company, and in the 11th month, the customer receives a call from an executive offering a discounted renewal. Since this call is aimed at promoting or advertising a product or service, it would be categorized as Promotional Communication.

   
   

2. 160-series calling: Service/Transactional voice calls by the PE will exclusively be done using 160 series numbers.

   
   

Important clarification surrounding the use of the newly introduced 160 series:

1. The use of regular 10-digit numbers for commercial communication has been completely restricted. Use of any other 10-digit fixed/mobile number other than 140/160 series for making Promotional/Service/Transactional voice calls by Senders may result in disconnection of all telecom resources of the Sender for a period up to two years and Sender shall also be put under the blacklist category for that period during which no new telecom resource shall be provided to such Senders by any Telecom Service Provider (‘TSP’).

2. Each TSP is allocated 1,000 numbers from the 160 series per Licensed Service Area (LSA) to facilitate Service and Transactional communications. Further, only PEs can procure 160 series numbers from the TSPs and these restrictions are causing concerns to the stakeholders.

3. For 160 series calling, which is designated for Service and Transactional communications, there will be no scrubbing mechanism in place. This means that calls made under this category will not be blocked, ensuring seamless communication between service providers and customers.

   
   

An example of 160 series calling would be a customer who has taken a loan from a bank, repayable in installments over a one-year period. In this case, the customer's consent can be inferred for the duration of the contract, and any call made regarding the loan facility, such as payment reminders or account updates would be classified as a Service communication.

It must be noted that these regulations do not apply to inbound calling and cater to only outbound commercial calling. Calls made to employees or partners are also not dealt with in this regulation. For example, calls made to internal leads, such as those made by a logistics company to its driver fleet, are not subject to these regulations.

   4. Robo Calling

Under the amended Regulation 4, Senders must pre-declare their use of robo-calling to the Originating Access Provider. Service or Transactional robo-calls are not being subjected to special restrictions. However, the intent appears to be to allow Service and Transactional robo-calls which are time-sensitive, to be permitted via the 160 series only.

TRAI is of the opinion that many entities have increasingly turned to auto-dialers or robocalls for commercial communications, causing widespread nuisance. However, certain legitimate services depend on robocalls for time-sensitive notifications, such as emergency alerts, transaction updates, and real-time service changes (e.g., flight delays or credit card fraud alerts). Given their essential nature, Service and Transactional robocalls should remain unrestricted. 

Promotional voice calls made via auto-dialers or robocalls should be allowed only through 140 series numbers, while Service and Transactional voice calls should be routed through 160 series numbers or any other designated series allocated for this purpose.

As per the EM, "at present, there is no need for any separate regulation for the Auto dialer or Robo-Calls. However, the Sender should pre-declare the use of Auto dialer or Robo-Calls and the objectives of such calls to the Originating Access Provider, which will enable the blocking of such calls based on the preference of the customer. Therefore, it has been mandated that all senders shall notify the originating access provider in advance about the use of the Auto dialer/Robo-Calls."

Our view is that robo-calls will come increasingly prevalent with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence-based tools and their increasing accuracy, lack of downtime, decreasing costs, multi-language and omni-channel content handling capacity, etc. With increased usage, specific regulations on robo-calls may need to be issued. 

Further, the use of a designated series for robocalling becomes even more crucial with the increasing cases of deepfakes and scams. Calls made from a regular 10-digit number could easily be fraudulent, whereas using a designated series can serve as an authentication mechanism for verifying the source and preventing scams. At present, TRAI has taken the view that specially regulating such calls may not be necessary.

   5. Use of Specific Template Headers

Any type of commercial communication made using SMS should be identifiable by the Recipient from the standardized header structure, i.e. suffixing "-P", "-S", "-T", and "-G" for Promotional, Service, Transactional, and Government Messages, respectively.

   6. Other Notable Amendments

Some of the other significant amendments to the TCCCPR are as follows:

1. Customers can now complain about UCC from unregistered Senders without registering their blocking/receiving preferences.

2. All Promotional messages must include a mandatory opt-out option.

3. Government messages form a separate category to ensure important communications are not missed.

4. No consent requests may be sent for 90 days after a customer opts out (unless the customer opts in sooner). 

5. Access Providers may require security deposits from Senders/Telemarketers and forfeit them upon violations. They must also sign legally binding agreements outlining roles, responsibilities, and penalties for non-compliance.

6. Access Providers must monitor call/SMS patterns (e.g. high volumes, short durations, low incoming-to-outgoing ratios) to flag potential spammers in real-time. Strict PE–Telemarketer traceability is mandated to reduce spam and unauthorized commercial communications.

7. Operators must deploy honeypots (dedicated numbers to log spam) to detect trends and take preemptive action. The number of intermediaries between the PE and the Telemarketer is limited to ensure full message traceability.

8. Senders/Telemarketers must undergo physical verification, biometric authentication, and unique mobile linking. Operators are to maintain comprehensive complaint and Sender records for swift identification of violators. 

   
   

   7. Enforcement and Penalties

The updated regulations strengthen enforcement by refining complaint criteria, extending the complaint window, and lowering the threshold for action. Stricter penalties have been introduced for Access Providers failing to curb UCC, including financial disincentives for misreporting and improper compliance.

1. Customer Complaints

   The newly inserted Proviso to Regulation 23, sub-regulation 5 says that “if the complaints against Unsolicited Commercial Communication, made through Voice Calls or Message, contain the mobile number of the Sender, the mobile number of the complainant, the date of UCC and a brief about of UCC Voice Call or Message, it shall be treated as a valid complaint. Further, the complaint window has been increased to 7 days.”

   
   

   The threshold for action has been revised to 5 complaints within 10 days, down from the previous 10 complaints in 7 days.

   
   

2. Penalties

   If an Access Provider fails to prevent UCC from registered Senders or Registered Telemarketers, the Authority may impose financial penalties. This includes ₹1,000 per valid complaint wrongly dismissed and ₹5,000 per improper Header or Content Template registration. If UCC originates due to another provider’s faulty registration, the penalty is shifted to that provider.

   
   

   Repeated violations result in the suspension of all telecom resources. First offence: 15-day bar on outgoing services; subsequent offences: 1-year disconnection and blacklisting across all providers.

   
   

   The regulation also provides for financial disincentives in a graded manner: ₹2L, ₹5L, and ₹10L, for first, second and per instance of subsequent violations, respectively, will be imposed on Access Providers in case of misreporting of the count of the UCC.

   
   

V. Intersection of Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and TCCCPR

India has introduced a new Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (‘DPDPA’) that requires businesses to collect the consent of end users when sending them or when processing their data. 

Section 4(1) of the DPDPA says “A person may process the personal data of a Data Principal only in accordance with the provisions of this Act and for a lawful purpose,—

(a) for which the Data Principal has given her consent; or

(b) for certain legitimate uses”

It is important to note that the DPDPA is not yet in force. Additionally, the standards for consent prescribed under it align with Digital Consent Acquisition requirements, as both mandate explicit consent.

The consent collection processes will have to be much more granular than they have been under existing law or market practice. A point of consideration is that the penalties under the DPDPA are probably some of the highest penalties that can go up to 250 crores. So naturally, there is a risk assessment that needs to be carried out for all of the processes where customer data is being dealt with.

It must also be noted that TRAI acknowledged in the EM that the adoption of Digital Consent Acquisition is delayed as many PEs feel that the current mandated process is restrictive and that alternative process needs to be explored by TRAI to ensure already acquired consent are also captured in the DLT platform.

VI. Delays and Lapses

Industry stakeholders have expressed disappointment with the newly introduced TCCCPR regulation amendments. For instance, Cellular Operators Association of India (‘COAI’) argued that imposing financial disincentives on TSPs, who act merely as intermediaries, is ineffective and has repeatedly failed to curb UCC in TRAI’s past attempts. Instead, COAI suggested that any penalties should be directed at Telemarketers or PEs, as they are the actual originators and beneficiaries of commercial communications. COAI also criticized TRAI for implementing these amendments without addressing all relevant concerns.

The effort to regulate the industry and commercial communication has seen both successes and shortcomings. Experience indicates that regulations, directions, and guidelines have not been effectively implemented, with evident gaps in enforcement.

Many industry stakeholders argue that enforcement has historically been weak, with non-compliant Telemarketers finding ways to bypass restrictions. Additionally, concerns remain regarding the operational challenges businesses face in adapting to these new rules, particularly in ensuring the correct classification of Service and Promotional communications. Without robust implementation frameworks and industry cooperation, there is a risk that the new regulations may struggle to achieve their intended objectives.

Our view

The 2025 Amendments mark a welcome step towards curbing UCC and enhancing customer protection through stricter compliance measures and enforcement mechanisms. By refining the consent framework, mandating designated number series for commercial calls, and imposing stringent penalties on violators, a more reliable and robust ecosystem is being created. 

The introduction of the 160 series specifically for service-related calls, free from scrubbing restrictions, will enable uninterrupted and essential communication between businesses and customers, as also increase conversions for businesses over time. While calls from 160 series will ensure that critical Service communications are reliably delivered without interference, significant effort and attention will be required to maintain a clear distinction between Service and Promotional calls. Businesses will need to maintain clear demarcation between calls of either type, which was hitherto not done. Determination of the category will largely hinge on two factors: the manner in which consent is acquired and the actual content of the call.

While the initial deadline of 31 March 2025 for full implementation of the 160 series has passed and no update has been made available by TRAI, businesses are slowly moving towards exploring their options and setting up necessary infrastructure. 

Besides the above, other challenges persist, particularly concerning the practical implementation of the amendments which stipulate stricter financial disincentives on intermediaries and the operational burden of compliance. 

The intersection of TCCCPR with the DPDPA 2023 is another area which needs ironing out and highlights the need for a harmonised regulatory approach to data privacy, consent management, and telecom communication governance.

Authors Abhinav Goyal, Anmol Singh and Siya Jindal can be reached on abhinav@sigmachambers.in, anmol@sigmachambers.in, and siya@sigmachambers.in

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