The War on Spam Has Collateral Damage
For years, Indian mobile users have been inundated with Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), better known as spam calls and messages. In response, telecom service providers deployed powerful filters, often using AI and machine learning, to block
this nuisance. These systems analyse call patterns, flagging numbers that make unusually high volumes of short-duration calls. While this has helped reduce spam, it's an imperfect science. The unfortunate side effect is that legitimate and critical communications are frequently caught in the crossfire. Calls from e-commerce delivery partners, verification calls from financial institutions, and even government outreach using official number series are sometimes incorrectly tagged and blocked, causing significant disruption for consumers and businesses alike.
Why Legitimate Calls Get Flagged
The problem often lies with how spam is identified. Many call management apps rely on crowd-sourced data, where users can report any number as spam. When enough users flag a number—even a legitimate one used by a large company to contact thousands of customers—it gets labelled as spam for everyone. Furthermore, TRAI has designated specific number series, like '140' for promotional calls and '1600' for service communication, to help users identify call types. However, even these officially designated numbers are sometimes wrongly blocked by third-party apps, defeating their purpose. This creates a dilemma: businesses trying to follow the rules still can't get through, and consumers miss out on calls they are actually expecting.
TRAI's Solution: The Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) System
To address this, TRAI has mandated the creation of a Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) system. The core idea is to create a unified, verifiable registry of customer consent. Currently, consent is obtained and held by individual businesses (known as Principal Entities), making it impossible for telecom operators to verify if a call is solicited. The DCA platform will change this by creating a central system where a customer's consent to be contacted by a specific business is digitally recorded and accessible to all telecom providers. This record will be stored on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform, similar to blockchain, ensuring it is secure and transparent.
How Verifiable Consent Will Work
Under the new framework, when a customer agrees to receive communications from a bank or an e-commerce site, that consent will be officially logged on the DLT platform. Before a telecom operator’s filter blocks a commercial call, it will first check this ledger. If a valid, unrevoked consent is found, the call will be allowed to go through. This system aims to shift the focus from simply blocking suspected spam to actively verifying which calls are legitimate. TRAI has directed all access providers to use a common short code starting with '127' for sending messages to seek consent, making the process uniform and recognisable for users. Customers will also have a clear, unified process to revoke their consent at any time.
A More Targeted Approach
In addition to the DCA, TRAI is seeking more authority under the IT Act to regulate call management apps that wrongly label legitimate calls. The goal is to ensure these apps do not block calls from the official 140 and 1600 series numbers. This two-pronged approach—verifying consent through the DCA and preventing wrongful blocking by apps—aims to restore trust in official communication channels. For consumers, this should mean fewer missed deliveries and important alerts. For businesses, it provides a clearer, more reliable pathway to communicate with customers who have opted-in, reducing the risk of being unfairly blacklisted. While implementation will require significant coordination between businesses and telecom operators, it marks a critical step towards a smarter and less frustrating communication ecosystem.
