Tagging or filtering calls from 1600 series not allowed; can block those from 1400 series, says TRAI

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Friday said “any tagging, blocking or filtering of calls originating from 1600 series numbers is not permitted.” Allaying fears that the designated 1600 series – reserved for banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) – and 1400 series – mandated for entities making promotional calls across sectors – could potentially lead to misinformation or misinterpretation, the regulator said “any tagging or filtering of calls from 1400 series numbers is not allowed except for blocking on the do not disturb (DND) registry.” “TRAI has mandated the use of 1600xx series numbers for service and transaction calls by regulated entities of BFSI sector (entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA) to their existing customers and by govt entities for govt to citizen communication. A key objective of assigning designated series for these important communications is to make such calls trustworthy for the customers/ citizen,” TRAI said in a statement, adding, “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.“Regarding 1400xx series, it said: ” Entities desirous of availing 140 series number 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 call originating from 140 series numbers from entities of any or all sectors by registering their preference on the DND registry.”“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 originating from entities of the blocked sectors. The customer can register his/her DND preference through multiple means including through 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.