India’s telecom and banking regulators have joined forces to roll out a pilot program aimed at curbing unsolicited commercial calls and texts by digitizing customer consent processes. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and selected banks, has launched the initiative under a Regulatory Sandbox framework to test the enhanced Consent Registration Function (CRF).
This move follows growing public frustration over spam communications, many of which stem from businesses claiming to have received customer consent via unverifiable means—often offline or deceptively obtained. Although under current regulations commercial messages are allowed if explicit customer consent is in place, the absence of a secure digital verification system has allowed widespread misuse.
The pilot will require telecom service providers (TSPs) to coordinate directly with banks in deploying a secure and interoperable digital consent registry. Customers’ approvals for communications will be digitally collected and stored, making it easier to verify and enforce opt-in status. The banking sector, owing to its vulnerability to fraud via spam calls and messages, is the first focus in this rollout.
TRAI’s past efforts to clamp down on such misuse included enabling customers to report unregistered telemarketers and disconnecting telecom resources flagged for spamming. However, verifying offline consents continued to be a loophole. The new pilot seeks to close this gap by bringing a standardized, transparent system of digital tracking and validation.
TRAI emphasized its long-term goal of sector-wide expansion for this system beyond banking, with a focus on consumer protection, data privacy, and regaining trust in legitimate commercial communication. The Authority plans to work closely with sector regulators to fine-tune the framework and ensure an ecosystem built on consent, transparency, and accountability. The success of this pilot could mark a paradigm shift in how commercial communication is regulated across industries in India.
