Phone calls from 1600 number series cannot be blocked, DND app can block calls from 140 series: TRAI

TRAI said in a statement on Friday, July 10, 2026, that no app can block phone calls originating from the 1600 number series and intended to communicate with citizens by regulated entities and the government, laying out its stance amid an ongoing battle with caller identification app Truecaller over tagging and identifying calls from the private number series.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also clarified that promotional calls originating from the 140 number series cannot be tagged or filtered by an app and can only be blocked by the DND registry managed by the regulator.

“Under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), any tagging, blocking or filtering of calls from 1600 series numbers is not permitted,” TRAI said. he said.

The regulator said it has mandated the use of 1600 series numbers for service and transaction calls by regulated entities of banking, financial services and insurance regulated entities by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA to their existing customers and by government agencies for inter-governmental communications.

The regulator said the main purpose of assigning designated series for these important communications is to make such calls reliable for citizens.

telemarketing

For calls starting with the 140 number series, TRAI said it should be used by registered telemarketers.

“Customers have the right to allow or block promotional calls originating from serial number 140 from entities in any or all sectors by registering their preferences in the Do Not Disturb (DND) register,” TRAI said. he said.

The regulator said that a customer who blocks any or all sectors in the DND registry from receiving promotional calls will not receive any calls from the 140 series from organizations of the blocked sectors.

TRAI said, “The customer can register his/her DND preference through multiple means including the TRAI DND app. Any tagging or filtering of calls from 140 serial numbers is not permitted other than blocking in the DND registry as any tagging may mislead the customer who has otherwise consented to the receipt of such calls from a sector in the DND registry.” he said.

Truecaller questions Centre’s move

Call management app Truecaller questioned the regulator’s move, claiming that spammers were misusing forwarding and 5.25 lakh people had marked calls from these numbers as spam.

“TRAI has issued a press release reiterating that 1600 and 140 series calls cannot be marked as spam by anyone. This is exactly what has led to the increase in spam from these series! The data proves beyond doubt that spammers are abusing this guideline. If 5.25 lakh people are telling us every day that it is spam, why shouldn’t we allow us to mark numbers from these series as spam?” Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala said:

The regulator has sought authorization from the Ministry of Electronics and IT to take action against apps that violate its norms, aimed at strengthening the fight against spam and fraudulent calls.

Mr Jhunjhunwala on Wednesday objected to TRAI’s approach, alleging misuse of 1600 and 140 series phone calls.

He said that the number of spam calls made on the 140/1600 number series has increased rapidly and 5.1 crore calls from both series remain unanswered every day.

Specifically on the 1600 series, which is reserved for service/transaction related calls, we have seen daily blocking actions triple (208% increase) since October 2025. A total of 7.4 crore manual blocking actions have been taken against these serials in the last 8 months,” Mr. Jhunjhunwala said in a social media post.

He said currently Truecaller users are actively blocking 4 lakh calls from 140 series and 1.25 lakh calls from 1600 series every day.