The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will introduce an appeals mechanism in its Do Not Disturb (DND) app, allowing users to escalate complaints if they are dissatisfied with telecom operators’ responses, Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said on Friday.
Lahoti was speaking at an event to unveil revamped versions of the telecom regulator’s consumer-facing apps.
The appeals feature, currently under development, is aimed at strengthening accountability in spam complaint resolution. “We already have it in plan, it will be made available at the earliest,” Lahoti said.
Strengthening Accountability
The DND and MySpeed apps have been rebuilt nearly a decade after their initial launch in 2016-17, in line with evolving telecom technologies, user behaviour, and the growing scale of digital connectivity.
The revamp comes amid persistent concerns around unsolicited commercial communications. Trai data show that out of 3.1 million complaints received in 2025, over 1.7 million were registered through the DND app, making it the single-largest channel for spam reporting.
To tighten enforcement, Trai has expanded the scope of complaints to include unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) — a key regulatory change introduced in 2025. Lahoti said this has improved traceability and action against spam sources.
Hard Enforcement
Regulatory action is triggered when five unique complaints are received against a sender. In such cases, outgoing services are barred for 15 days across all numbers linked to the sender. Repeat violations lead to disconnection of all telecom resources for up to one year and blacklisting across operators.
As part of enforcement action, Trai said over 730,000 notices have been issued to unregistered telemarketers, with 470,000 entities restricted for a month and nearly 90,000 repeat offenders faced six-month communication caps. In addition, 184,000 telecom resources have been disconnected, largely linked to UTMs.
Trai is also set to launch a revamped MyCall app by March, which will allow users to report call drops, muting and voice distortion.