New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has objected to Truecaller's display of a "frequently blocked" badge on calls originating from the dedicated 140 and 1600 number series, saying such labels could mislead consumers and create unnecessary suspicion around legitimate commercial and government communications.
A senior TRAI official said that labelling regulated number series as "frequently blocked" is inappropriate because it could confuse users and erode confidence in calls made under the regulator's prescribed framework.
Instead, the official 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.
According to TRAI, increasing public awareness of the DND framework would be a more effective approach than labelling individual numbers, as it enables consumers to manage their communication preferences in a structured and transparent manner.
The regulator has reserved the 1600 number series exclusively for service and transactional calls made by regulated banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) entities, including those supervised 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 series is also used for government-to-citizen communications.
The 140 series, meanwhile, has been designated for promotional calls made by registered entities across various sectors.
The senior official stressed that 1600 series numbers should never be tagged in a way that discourages consumers from answering them, as these calls may include critical fraud alerts, transaction verifications, banking notifications, and important government communications.
TRAI's remarks come amid an ongoing disagreement with Truecaller over the display of labels on the dedicated 140 and 1600 number series.
Truecaller has maintained that spam calls have increased since TRAI mandated the use of dedicated number series while restricting caller identification apps from displaying community-reported spam information for those numbers.
According to the company, many users have started ignoring or blocking calls from these series, resulting in reduced trust in genuine business communications.
With IANS inputs