27% mobile subscribers surveyed confirm reduction in pesky calls post TRAI blacklisting 50 calling entities and 2.75 lakh numbers

November 25, 2024, New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has stated that consumer complaints against spam calls from unregistered senders have declined by 20% since August, when it issued directives to all access providers, and mandated them to immediately stop promotional voice calls from unregistered senders or telemarketers using SIP, PRI, or other telecom resources.

In a statement on November 20, TRAI stated that consumer spam complaints have dropped by 20% from 1.89 lakh in August 2024 to 1.51 lakh in October 2024, after it issued spam direction on August 13. Indian regulations require businesses to register their message templates and headers with telecom companies. In its directive in August, the telecom regulator had also urged stakeholders to contribute to a “cleaner and more efficient telecom ecosystem” and warned that any unregistered telemarketer found to be misusing these resources will face severe consequences, including disconnection of all telecom resources for up to two years and blacklisting.

Apart from the directives, TRAI disconnected around 2.75 lakh telephone numbers and blocked services to 50 entities as part of a crackdown against pesky callers and unregistered telemarketers. In a statement issued in September, TRAI said it has observed a significant rise in spam calls, with more than 7.9 lakh complaints reported against unregistered telemarketers in the first half of 2024. Meanwhile on September 25, telecom giant Bharti Airtel also announced the launch of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered spam detection tool that will flag suspected spam calls and messages in real-time to end users.

LocalCircles, which has been tracking the magnitude and nature of unsolicited or pesky calls in India since 2018 and escalating the same to TRAI for intervention and actions conducted a follow-on survey to understand directly from the mobile subscribers if the actions by TRAI and Airtel have made a difference. The survey received over 14,000 responses from mobile subscribers located in 309 districts of India. 62% were men while 38% respondents were women. 40% respondents were from tier 1, 27% from tier 2 and 33% respondents were from tier 3, 4 & rural districts.

Only 9% mobile subscribers surveyed confirm net reduction in pesky calls post TRAIs blacklisting of spammers

The survey asked mobile subscribers, “Have the number of pesky calls reduced for you in the last 30 days?” Out of 14,941 consumers who responded to the question 43% stated “No, they have not reduced” and 21% stated “no, they have in fact increased even more recently with both calls from humans and robos/ machines”. Of the remaining, 9% stated “yes, they have reduced”; 18% stated “yes, they have reduced but automated/ robo calls have increased” and 9% of respondents did not give a clear answer. To sum up, only 9% of mobile subscribers surveyed confirm net reduction in pesky calls post TRAIs blacklisting of spammers. Overall, 27% reported a reduction is pesky calls but 18% of them reported an increase in robo calls or automated calls indicating that some of the unsolicited consumer communication might have changed form.

In summary, it may be early days since TRAI took a firm stance and directed the telecom service providers to act against spam or pesky callers and telemarketers. 27% mobile subscribers reporting a reduction in pesky calls and 9% reporting a net reduction is an improvement. However, TRAI will need to be vigilant to ensure that these human pesky calls don’t all get re-routed as robo calls as the currently reported trend indicates.

LocalCircles will continue tracking the issue going forward both at an aggregate level as well as at an operator level such that any improvements or concerns can be brought to the notice of the regulator and solutions working can be scaled.

Survey Demographics

The survey received over 14,000 responses from mobile subscribers located in 309 districts of India. 62% were men while 38% respondents were women. 40% respondents were from tier 1, 27% from tier 2 and 33% respondents were from tier 3, 4 & rural districts. The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform, and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.