Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Jul 10: The government on Friday issued a clarification on the use of the designated 1600 and 140 telephone number series, saying that recent media reports could create confusion and lead to misunderstanding about how these numbers are intended to function.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said the 1600 series has been exclusively designated for service and transactional calls made by regulated entities in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.

According to the regulator, these numbers are used by institutions regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to communicate with their existing customers. Government departments also use the series for official government-to-citizen communications.

TRAI said the purpose of introducing the dedicated 1600 series is to enhance public confidence by ensuring that important service-related calls can be easily identified as genuine. Under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), telecom operators are not permitted to tag, block or filter calls originating from 1600 series numbers.

The regulator also clarified that the 140 series has been earmarked exclusively for promotional calls made by businesses and organisations across all sectors.

Entities wishing to use 140 numbers for promotional communication must first register with their telecom service providers under the TCCCPR framework and comply with the applicable regulatory requirements.

TRAI emphasised that consumers retain full control over whether they wish to receive promotional calls. Through the Do Not Disturb (DND) registry, subscribers can choose to block promotional calls from specific sectors or from all sectors altogether.

Customers who have activated DND preferences for certain sectors will not receive promotional calls from 140 series numbers associated with those blocked categories.

The regulator added that DND preferences can be registered or modified through multiple channels, including the TRAI DND mobile application.

TRAI further clarified that telecom operators are not allowed to tag or filter calls originating from 140 series numbers, except where calls are blocked in accordance with a customer's DND preferences. It said unauthorised tagging of such calls could mislead consumers who have chosen to receive promotional communications from selected sectors.