TRAI Asks Truecaller to Remove 'Frequently Blocked' Label from 140 and 1600 Number Series

New Delhi- The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked Truecaller not to mark calls from the dedicated 140 and 1600 number series as "frequently blocked", stating that such labels could mislead users and reduce trust in genuine commercial and government communications.

A senior TRAI official said displaying warning labels on these regulated number ranges may create unnecessary confusion among consumers and discourage them from answering legitimate calls made under the regulator's framework.

Instead of using such tags, the regulator has suggested that Truecaller display a message informing users that they can block unwanted promotional calls from the 140 series through TRAI's official Do Not Disturb (DND) preference management application.

TRAI believes that increasing public awareness about the DND system would be a better approach than attaching cautionary labels to individual numbers, as it enables consumers to manage promotional communications in a structured and informed manner.

The regulator has reserved the 1600 number series for service and transactional calls made by regulated banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) organisations, including entities overseen by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The same series is also used for government-to-citizen communications.

Meanwhile, the 140 number series has been designated for promotional calls made by registered businesses and organisations.

TRAI emphasised that calls from the 1600 series should never be labelled in a way that discourages users from answering them, as they may carry important information such as banking transaction alerts, fraud warnings, verification requests, or official government notifications.

The regulator's comments come amid an ongoing disagreement with Truecaller over the way the app identifies calls from the 140 and 1600 number series.

Truecaller has maintained that spam-related concerns have increased since TRAI introduced the dedicated numbering system and limited caller identification apps from displaying community-reported spam warnings for these numbers. According to the company, many users now ignore or block calls from these series, affecting the delivery of legitimate business and service-related communications.

With inputs from IANS