What is the story about?
Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala on Wednesday raised concerns over the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s move to restrict caller ID apps from displaying community-reported information for calls made through the 140 and 1600 number series.
Introduced by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in May 2025, the 1600 number series was created for banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) service and transactional calls. It was meant to allow consumers to identify genuine communications more easily.
On X, Jhunjhunwala argued that limiting community-based caller information has reduced consumer trust, increased unanswered calls and is “only going to get worse.”
“In late 2025, TRAI enforced businesses to call consumers using 140 (for telemarketing calls) and 1600 (for BFSI companies to make service/transaction related calls) number series with the intention to control the calls using these dedicated number series.
“This might sound good on paper but the problem started when TRAI also mandated Truecaller not to show any community reported spam information, thereby restricting Truecaller to never show any 140 and 1600 numbers as spam,” he explained.
According to the Truecaller CEO, the restriction has led to a sharp rise inspam calls using these series. He said that more than 51 million calls from 140 and 1600 numbers go unanswered every day. Over the past eight months, Truecaller users ignored 81% of 140-series calls and 79% of 1600-series calls.
“Some of these calls are of course legit, which Truecaller would have displayed with its verified badge and consumers would have answered these calls. Instead, consumers and legit businesses both lost out. It's a lose-lose situation for everyone,” he added.
According to Jhunjhunwala, blocking actions against 1600-series numbers have risen 208% since October 2025. He added that Truecaller users manually blocked 7.4 crore calls from such numbers over the period.
“The current situation is that Truecaller users actively block 4 lakh calls from 140 series and 1.25 lakh calls from the 1600 series — every single day,” he said.
What’s TRAI asked for
Truecaller introduced a ‘Frequently Blocked’ badge for 1600-series numbers that have been blocked by many users, without marking them asspam. However, the CEO shared in his X post that TRAI has now approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) seeking powers to regulate caller ID apps.
“Yesterday, we read the news that TRAI is asking MEITY for the authority to regulate caller ID apps to not show any information at all on 140/1600 numbers. This makes absolutely no sense. We are good actors who are helping hundreds of millions of Indians every day…,” he added.
Urging the government not to penalise good actors such as Truecaller, the CEO said that the company will submit its data to MeitY that “proves the above statements, to make sure they make a data driven decision in the future.”
TRAI is seeking status of 'authorised agency' under the IT Act to act against caller ID apps and the MEITY is consulting with DoT on granting powers under IT Act, sources told CNBCTV18..
Users express frustration with 1600 number ID
In his post, the CEO also shared screenshots of X users, raising concerns about the misuse of 1600 number series. In the two screenshots, users flagged that the new 1600 series is now being used by financial institutions to sell loans and policies, which defeats the purpose of their launch.
Reacting to his X post, many other users also shared facing similar problems.
“This is exactly why I stopped answering most 1600 calls,” a user posted.
Echoing similar sentiment, another said: “I have actually blocked quite a few 1600 numbers myself. Most of the calls I received were promotional, not service-related.”
After introducing the policy in May 2025, TRAI in December directed all entities regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to adopt the dedicated number series by February 15, 2026.
Similar directions were issued for entities regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
At the time, the government also shared that around 570 entities had already adopted the 1600 series, subscribing to more than 3,000 such numbers.
Introduced by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in May 2025, the 1600 number series was created for banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) service and transactional calls. It was meant to allow consumers to identify genuine communications more easily.
On X, Jhunjhunwala argued that limiting community-based caller information has reduced consumer trust, increased unanswered calls and is “only going to get worse.”
“In late 2025, TRAI enforced businesses to call consumers using 140 (for telemarketing calls) and 1600 (for BFSI companies to make service/transaction related calls) number series with the intention to control the calls using these dedicated number series.
“This might sound good on paper but the problem started when TRAI also mandated Truecaller not to show any community reported spam information, thereby restricting Truecaller to never show any 140 and 1600 numbers as spam,” he explained.
Wondering
why spam calls have increased SIGNIFICANTLY in India recently? Well, it's actually going to get worse, here’s why:
In late 2025, TRAI enforced businesses to call consumers using 140 (for telemarketing calls) and 1600 (for BFSI companies to make service/transaction… Bank of India
— Rishit Jhunjhunwala (@rishj) July 8, 2026
According to the Truecaller CEO, the restriction has led to a sharp rise inspam calls using these series. He said that more than 51 million calls from 140 and 1600 numbers go unanswered every day. Over the past eight months, Truecaller users ignored 81% of 140-series calls and 79% of 1600-series calls.
“Some of these calls are of course legit, which Truecaller would have displayed with its verified badge and consumers would have answered these calls. Instead, consumers and legit businesses both lost out. It's a lose-lose situation for everyone,” he added.
According to Jhunjhunwala, blocking actions against 1600-series numbers have risen 208% since October 2025. He added that Truecaller users manually blocked 7.4 crore calls from such numbers over the period.
“The current situation is that Truecaller users actively block 4 lakh calls from 140 series and 1.25 lakh calls from the 1600 series — every single day,” he said.
What’s TRAI asked for
Truecaller introduced a ‘Frequently Blocked’ badge for 1600-series numbers that have been blocked by many users, without marking them asspam. However, the CEO shared in his X post that TRAI has now approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) seeking powers to regulate caller ID apps.
“Yesterday, we read the news that TRAI is asking MEITY for the authority to regulate caller ID apps to not show any information at all on 140/1600 numbers. This makes absolutely no sense. We are good actors who are helping hundreds of millions of Indians every day…,” he added.
Urging the government not to penalise good actors such as Truecaller, the CEO said that the company will submit its data to MeitY that “proves the above statements, to make sure they make a data driven decision in the future.”
TRAI is seeking status of 'authorised agency' under the IT Act to act against caller ID apps and the MEITY is consulting with DoT on granting powers under IT Act, sources told CNBCTV18..
Users express frustration with 1600 number ID
In his post, the CEO also shared screenshots of X users, raising concerns about the misuse of 1600 number series. In the two screenshots, users flagged that the new 1600 series is now being used by financial institutions to sell loans and policies, which defeats the purpose of their launch.
Reacting to his X post, many other users also shared facing similar problems.
“This is exactly why I stopped answering most 1600 calls,” a user posted.
Echoing similar sentiment, another said: “I have actually blocked quite a few 1600 numbers myself. Most of the calls I received were promotional, not service-related.”
After introducing the policy in May 2025, TRAI in December directed all entities regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to adopt the dedicated number series by February 15, 2026.
Similar directions were issued for entities regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
At the time, the government also shared that around 570 entities had already adopted the 1600 series, subscribing to more than 3,000 such numbers.
