The government issued clarifications on the functioning of the designated 1600 series and 140 series to avoid potential misinformation. The 1600 series numbers are reserved for service and transaction calls by regulated entities in the BFSI sector, as per TRAI. These calls are for entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA for communication with existing customers and for government to citizen communication.
The objective of assigning these designated series is to ensure trustworthiness in such important communications for customers/citizens. According to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), no tagging, blocking, or filtering of calls from 1600 series numbers is allowed. The use of 140xx series numbers is mandated for promotional calls by entities across all sectors.
Entities wishing to use 140 series numbers for promotional calls must register with Telecom Service Providers under the TCCCPR framework and comply with the regulation. Customers can choose to allow or block promotional calls from 140 series numbers by registering their preferences on the Do Not Disturb (DND) registry. Customers who block sectors on the DND registry will not receive promotional calls from 140 series numbers of the blocked sectors.
Customers can set their DND preferences through various methods, including the TRAI DND App. Any tagging or filtering of calls from 140 series numbers, except for blocking on the DND registry, is prohibited. Such actions could mislead customers who have permitted calls from a specific sector on the DND registry.
