Telcos, businesses spar over calls, SMS consent regime

Mumbai: Telecom operators and businesses, including banks, are at odds over how to implement India's digital consent framework for commercial SMS and calls.

While one dispute is among licensed telecom players, the broader conflict is between the telecom industry and banks over the fixation and sharing of charges for consent collection.

Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea want complete control over consent ownership, citing their access to the majority of consumers. They argue that other licensed firms such as Quadrant Televentures (QTL) and STPL (formerly Videocon) should not be allowed to collect consent, as they lack subscribers and contribute to spam.

Airtel said these service providers act as "risk-free originators" in the ecosystem. For instance, 93% of the 32,042 blacklisted entities on the anti-spam platform were linked to two such operators, while 45% of all blacklisted templates during the quarter ended March 2026 were associated with these networks, Airtel said in a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). It also claimed that more than 80% of unsolicited commercial communications complaints on voice calls in January 2026 originated from such networks.


Reliance Jio, in its submission, echoed Airtel's concerns and argued that consent management should reside exclusively with the subscriber-serving telecom operator.

However, other stakeholders disagree.

"Telcos are making these demands to serve their own business interests," said a participant in the discussions. "The digital consent solution has significant monetisation potential. Therefore, dominant operators want full control over it. I hope TRAI ensures free and fair competition in this matter."

Email queries sent to Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea remained unanswered at press time.

QTL and STPL could not be reached for comment.