A fresh dispute has erupted between the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and caller identification app Truecaller over spam calls and commercial numbers. While TRAI says apps must follow government rules, Truecaller argues that current regulations are making people distrust even genuine business calls.
TRAI had introduced the 140 and 1600 number series to help users identify authentic commercial and banking calls. However, Truecaller says many people now avoid answering these calls, fearing they are spam.
According to Truecaller’s State of Business Calling 2026 report, 76% of Indian consumers prefer voice calls for customer service, but 79% of businesses say customers ignore calls from unknown numbers. The report blames growing spam, lack of caller identity, and poorly timed calls for weakening trust in voice communication.
TRAI: Apps must follow the rules
TRAI Chairman A. K. Lahoti said caller ID apps cannot ignore government regulations. He explained that the 1600 series is reserved for banks, financial institutions, and government agencies to contact existing customers about services such as loan updates, high-value transactions, and important alerts.
He said marking these numbers as spam disrupts genuine communication and prevents customers from receiving important service calls.
Truecaller: The system has created more mistrust
Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala said the designated number series has failed to build trust. Instead, users are increasingly blocking these calls, with around 4 lakh calls from the 140 series and 1.25 lakh calls from the 1600 series being manually blocked every day.
He said Truecaller had warned TRAI that automatically treating these numbers as trusted would not reduce spam. According to him, genuine users are receiving more unwanted calls, while spammers are benefiting from the system.
The disagreement highlights the growing challenge of balancing anti-spam measures with ensuring that important calls from banks, businesses, and government agencies reach consumers.
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