India is facing an acute spam crisis. Phone users now field up to five unwanted calls per day, and the telecom operators recently flagged a staggering 24.4 billion calls and messages during the April–June quarter alone. Data shared by the government also outlines a sharp surge in unsolicited commercial communication over the past five years — going from 10.83 lakh UCC complaints to 31.09 lakh in 2025. 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had introduced special phone numbers a few years ago to help people identify genuine business calls. But the system has created confusion with Truecaller explaining in a recent report that millions were now ignoring even real bank and company calls. Spam has gradually inundated the system as many exploited technology and regulatory gaps or misused protections meant for legitimate businesses.

According to a TRAI report in early August, nearly 13.16 billion promotional calls originated via the dedicated 140 series between April and June of 2026. It added that 1.48 billion calls were blocked after verification with registered do-not-disturb preferences of the customers.

TRAI launches new 1601-series

According to the Department of Communications, TRAI initiated a phased launch of the 1601-series last week for service and transactional calls by utilities, courier and logistics sectors entities. Only the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector, and Government entities will now continue using numbers from 1600 series — making it significantly easier to spot spam calls. The numbers will be allocated directly to eligible entities after verification by Telecom Service Providers to combat impersonation and fraud.  

The new 1601 series will be used for calls from (among others) electricity distribution companies, water utilities, city gas distribution companies and LPG distribution entities. It also includes courier companies, express logistics companies, parcel delivery service providers, freight and logistics service providers engaged in delivery of consignments. 

‘24.4 billion spam calls, messages in three months’

According to its quarterly report, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India took action against 1.83 lakh telecom resources and blacklisted 263 senders during the first quarter of FY27. The data released earlier this month also highlighted the 1.085 million UCC complaints received between April and June. 

TRAI said it had barred 1,37,053 telecom resources for 15 days for the first violation, while repeat violations resulted in telecom resources being disconnected for one year. It also blocked 2,873 SMS headers and blacklisted 263 senders for one year.

AI-based systems deployed by telecom service providers flagged 22.99 billion incoming calls and 1.44 billion incoming SMS messages as suspected spam during this period. The systems analysed calling patterns to identify suspected spam, while warning notifications were issued to entities suspected of sending spam. Over 2.43 lakh warning notifications were issued after the system began sending such alerts on June 23.

“Registered DND preferences enabled blocking of about 1.48 billion promotional calls and 7.30 billion promotional SMSs, demonstrating effective consumer preference enforcement. 13.16 billion promotional calls and 248.06 billion commercial SMS were routed through registered communication channels,” the regulatory body wrote. 

It also noted that more than 1.12 billion subscribers have not registered any preference in the DND registry. Therefore they remain “accessible for all commercial communications from registered telemarketers and senders”. 

Growing spam crisis in India

Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the number of user-registered complaints had grown steadily over the past five years. TRAI received 17,21,582 complaints against unregistered senders or telemarketers between January and June this year. It is pertinent to note that only a tiny fraction of spam complaints are formally reported by users. 

“During the year 2025, a total of about 31 lakh UCC complaints were received by the access providers from the customers, and 7.99 lakh notices were issued by them to the senders/ telemarketers against the UCC complaints. As per the regulatory provisions, the access providers disconnected about 1.94 lakh telecom resources of the senders for violations in 2025,” the Minister of State added in another Written Reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Data provided to TRAI indicates that access providers flagged about 5,762 crores calls as suspected spam on the basis of behavioural pattern analysis between December 2025 and June 2026.