Telcos Blocked 1.48 Billion DND-Violating Calls: TRAI

Telecom operators blocked 1.48 billion promotional calls in the first quarter of FY27 after verifying them with the customers’ Do Not Disturb (DND) preferences, pointing to the success of its dedicated 140 numbering series in tackling unsolicited commercial communications, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Tuesday.

In the April-June quarter, the regulator said 13.16 billion promotional calls were made through the 140 series.

This period saw 248.06 billion commercial SMS sent by registered senders and telemarketers, with 7.30 billion promotional messages blocked after screening against customers’ DND preferences.

Also Read: Air India Launches Tourism Campaign After Ministry Partnership

Dedicated Numbering:

TRAI also said that there were 1.15 billion calls originating from the specified 1600 numbering series during the quarter.

The regulator said the 140 series was introduced to make sure promotional calls come from a dedicated range of numbers so that consumers can easily identify marketing calls and decide whether or not to answer them. Calls made through the series are validated against the DND preferences registered with users before delivery.

The 1600 series is built for service and transactional calls for the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry, and government-to-citizen communications. The numbering series provides trusted channels for critical communications such as transaction alerts, fraud warnings and service updates, says TRAI.

The regulator said the two dedicated numbering series increase transparency and consumer confidence and strengthen regulatory action against spam and fraudulent communications.

This is the latest data, weeks after TRAI increased its scrutiny of caller identification platforms on how they handle calls originating from 140 and 1600 series.

Also Read: Govt Proposes Changes to UPI Zero-MDR Law

Truecaller Row:

In July, the regulator had approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to take action against Truecaller for allegedly tagging or enabling blocking of legitimate calls from the 1600 series.

These practices can dissuade consumers from picking up genuine banking and transactional calls such as fraud alerts and transaction verification requests, TRAI said, adding that this would disrupt the flow of critical financial communications.

The regulator also raised concerns over caller ID and call management apps such as Truecaller, Hiya and Whoscall, saying they were tagging or helping block calls from the designated 140 and 1600 series, despite being part of the regulated telecom ecosystem.

Truecaller India CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala had said that the blocking of showing community-reported spam information for 140 and 1600 series numbers has caused the erosion of consumer trust and an increase in spam calls. He said the company would continue to work with both TRAI and MeitY and share data to support its stand.