Patna: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed new regulations to bring third-party caller ID and call management applications, including Truecaller, under a stricter regulatory framework. The move aims to reduce spam and fraud while ensuring that legitimate commercial and essential service calls are not wrongly blocked or labelled as spam.
The proposed framework is part of the draft Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026, which has been prepared by TRAI and is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). According to official sources, discussions on the proposal have already been completed with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Draft Seeks Greater Accountability
Under the proposed regulations, call management apps would be required to comply with government telecom rules and legal obligations. TRAI believes that unregulated practices by such applications can prevent users from receiving important communications from banks, insurers, government agencies and other essential service providers.
Officials said the proposed rules are intended to improve accountability while maintaining safeguards against spam and fraudulent calls.
Restrictions On Blocking Essential Calls
The draft regulations propose that caller ID apps should not mark, modify or block legitimate commercial or transactional calls by incorrectly classifying them as spam.
TRAI has noted that users have at times missed important communications from banks, insurance companies and emergency-related services because these calls were filtered or blocked by third-party applications. The proposed changes aim to reduce such instances.
Dedicated Number Series For Commercial Calls
As part of the draft framework, TRAI has proposed clearer identification of commercial communications through designated number series.
Promotional and telemarketing calls would continue to use numbers beginning with the 140 series, while the 1600 series has been designated for essential transactional calls from banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) institutions. Under the proposal, apps would not be permitted to restrict official calls originating from these designated series.
Truecaller CEO Responds
Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala has raised concerns over the proposal, stating on social media that designated number series alone may not solve the spam problem.
According to Jhunjhunwala, spam and fraudulent calls have also been reported from the 140 and 1600 series, suggesting that relying solely on these identifiers may not adequately protect users. The proposed regulations remain under consideration, and implementation will depend on approval from MeitY.
