Stop Displaying Spam Labels On Calls Originating From 140 & 1600 Number Series: TRAI Directs Truecaller

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed caller identification apps including Truecaller to stop displaying spam labels on calls originating from the 140 and 1600 number series. The 140 series is used for telemarketing calls, while the 1600 series is reserved for banking and financial service communication such as payment alerts and account updates.

TRAI says numbers are official business lines

TRAI has maintained that these number series are official business lines and that genuine calls were being blocked because of user reports flagging them as spam. The regulator's 2025 amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations stated that third party call management apps should not block or tag calls from these designated series. TRAI's concern is that if users report many 140 series numbers as spam, apps relying on crowd sourced data may end up blocking an entire category of calls, which could also affect registered businesses and government linked communication.

Truecaller complies but flags fallout

According to media reports, Truecaller has complied with TRAI's directive. However, the company says the move has created new problems. Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala said that more than 51 million calls from the 140 and 1600 series go unanswered every day, and claimed that Truecaller was not permitted to inform users when such calls were being reported as spam by the community.

According to a TechCrunch report, Truecaller's internal data shows users have ignored 81 percent of calls from the 140 series and 79 percent of calls from the 1600 series over the past eight months. During the same period, users manually blocked 74 million calls from the two number series, and daily blocking actions against 1600 series numbers more than tripled since October 2025.

Unable to mark these numbers as spam directly, Truecaller introduced a "Frequently Blocked" badge instead, which alerts users when a number from the designated series has been blocked by a large number of people.

TRAI seeks legal powers under IT Act

The regulator is now seeking to be designated an authorised agency under India's Information Technology Act, which would give it direct powers to act against caller identification apps such as Truecaller, Hiya and Whoscall. At present, TRAI cannot act directly against these platforms because they function as intermediaries under the IT Act rather than as telecom operators licensed by the Department of Telecommunications.

According to MediaNama, TRAI has proposed requiring these platforms to share spam reports with telecom operators' Do Not Disturb registry, prohibiting them from blocking or tagging calls from the 140 and 1600 series, and allowing the regulator to invoke provisions of the IT Act and IT Rules against non compliant intermediaries. The draft also proposes that repeated non compliance could result in intermediaries losing their Section 79 safe harbour protections.

What are 140 and 1600 number series used for?

The 140 and 1600 series are special number prefixes created by TRAI to help users instantly identify the kind of commercial call they are receiving. The 140 series is used for telemarketing calls, while the 1600 series is used for service calls from banks and financial companies. The rules were finalised in February 2025 under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations. Banks, non banking financial companies, mutual funds and insurers were given strict deadlines to migrate to these numbers by early 2026.

Published on: Thursday, July 09, 2026, 09:01 AM IST