The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has launched a pilot venture geared toward digitally verifying client consent for industrial calls and messages, in a transfer to curb unsolicited industrial communications and improve client safety. The initiative, launched in collaboration with the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI), entails choose banks and telecom service suppliers (TSPs) and marks the start of a nationwide rollout of a safe digital consent framework.
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Regulatory Background and the Problem of Offline Consent
Below the Telecom Business Communications Buyer Choice Laws (TCCCPR), 2018, companies are allowed to contact shoppers for industrial functions, even when the latter are registered underneath Do Not Disturb (DND), supplied express consent has been obtained. Nevertheless, TRAI has noticed a surge in spam complaints towards such entities, lots of whom declare to have client consent collected by offline or unverifiable means. In quite a few cases, shoppers allege that their cell numbers have been obtained by misrepresentation or unauthorized knowledge sharing.
“TRAI has undertaken a number of progressive regulatory measures lately to curb such practices. These embrace permitting shoppers to register complaints towards unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) even with out prior DND registration, and initiating large-scale disconnection of telecom assets being misused by the entities for spamming actions. Nevertheless, verification of consent for industrial communication citing offline consent of client, stays a formidable problem,” the Ministry of Communications stated on Monday, June 16, 2025.
Digital Consent Registry
To fight this, TRAI has mandated the usage of a safe, interoperable Digital Consent Registry maintained by Telecom Service Suppliers (TSPs), the place entities should digitally purchase and register client consent for industrial communication.
This is able to facilitate real-time verification of consent earlier than any industrial communication is initiated. Nevertheless, for the profitable operation of this consent registration framework, TRAI stated onboarding of entities sending industrial communications is a mandatory requirement.
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Pilot Rollout in Banking Sector with RBI
On June 13, 2025, TRAI issued a Route to all TSPs to start a Regulatory Sandbox Pilot with the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) and choose banks, prioritizing the banking sector on account of excessive client threat from monetary frauds. This Pilot will check the Consent Registration Operate (CRF) for its technical, operational, and regulatory robustness, aiming to scale throughout different sectors sooner or later.
TRAI says it stays dedicated to safeguarding client curiosity and enhancing belief in reliable industrial communications.
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