TRAI seeks MeitY action against Truecaller over 1600-series call tagging: Report

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) seeking action against caller identification platform Truecaller for allegedly tagging or enabling the blocking of legitimate calls originating from the regulated 1600 numbering series used by banks and financial institutions for service and transactional communications, according to a Moneycontrol report.Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said TRAI has argued that such practices could undermine critical banking communications by discouraging customers from answering genuine service calls, including fraud alerts, transaction verification requests and other essential notifications.According to the report, the regulator believes that if legitimate banking calls are identified as spam or routinely blocked by users because of spam indicators, it could affect customer service delivery and compromise time-sensitive financial communications.A senior TRAI official told Moneycontrol that the regulator had previously advised Truecaller against flagging calls from the 1600-series as spam, but the company did not comply with the request."We received feedback from banks that Truecaller is tagging their calls as spam. Since these are important service and transaction calls, customers may not pick up the calls. This creates a serious problem for service delivery and transaction-related communications," the official told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.The development comes amid an ongoing standoff between the regulator and caller identification platforms over the treatment of designated telecom numbering series. Earlier this week, reports said TRAI had sought powers under the Information Technology Act to take action against caller ID and call management applications, including Truecaller, Hiya and Whoscall, that allegedly tag or facilitate the blocking of calls originating from the 140 and 1600 number series.The 1600 series has been earmarked for banks and financial institutions to make service and transaction-related calls, while the 140 series is reserved for telemarketing communications.On Wednesday, Truecaller India CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala publicly criticised TRAI's stance, claiming restrictions on displaying community-reported spam information for 140 and 1600-series numbers had reduced consumer trust and contributed to a rise in spam calls. He said the company would continue engaging with both TRAI and MeitY and share data supporting its position.