Centre Clarifies on Misleading Reports on 1600 and 140 Series Phone Numbers

New Delhi: The government on Friday issued clarifications on certain media reports regarding the functioning of designated 1600 series and 140 series phone numbers, which could potentially lead to misinformation or misinterpretation of the operation of these designated series.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the 1600 series numbers are mandated for service and transaction calls by regulated entities in the BFSI sector.

These calls are for entities regulated by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA to their existing customers, and by government entities for government-to-citizen communication.

“A key objective of assigning designated series for these important communications is to make such calls trustworthy for the customers/citizens. Under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), any tagging, blocking or filtering of the calls originating from 1600 series numbers is not permitted,” the TRAI said in a statement.

Moreover, the use of 140xx series numbers has been mandated for making promotional calls by entities of any sector.

“Entities desirous of availing 140 series numbers for making promotional calls must register with Telecom Service Providers under the TCCCPR framework and comply with the provisions of the regulation. Customers have the right to allow or block promotional calls originating from 140 series numbers from entities of any or all sectors by registering their preference on the Do Not Disturb (DND) registry,” the telecom regulator informed.

It further stated that a customer who has blocked any or all sectors from receiving promotional calls on the DND registry will not receive any calls from 140 series numbers originating from entities of the blocked sectors.

The statement said that customers can register their DND preference through multiple means, including the TRAI DND App.

Any tagging or filtering of calls from 140 series numbers is not allowed, except for blocking on the DND registry, as any tagging can mislead a customer who has otherwise allowed receipt of such calls from a sector on the DND registry, it added.

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