Truecaller has openly criticised the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) caller identification framework, claiming that the regulator’s decision to whitelist certain telecom number series has unintentionally encouraged spam activity and weakened user confidence in incoming calls.
The caller identification platform also dismissed reports suggesting that TRAI is seeking greater authority to regulate caller ID applications, arguing that such a move would target platforms helping consumers rather than those responsible for spam and scam calls.
TRAI Whitelisting Rules Under Fire
In a post shared on X, Truecaller Chief Executive Officer Rishit Jhunjhunwala said the company complied with TRAI’s directives requiring dedicated telecom number series to be whitelisted. However, he questioned the effectiveness of the policy and suggested it has produced outcomes contrary to its original objective.
“Over 51 million calls from both series go unanswered every single day,” Jhunjhunwala wrote. He further noted that Truecaller had been “mandated not to tell our users that those calls are spam,” despite growing reports from users about spam and scam activity linked to those numbers.
According to the company, users have increasingly become wary of calls originating from the dedicated 140 and 1600 numbering series introduced under TRAI regulations. Truecaller’s internal data shows that over the past eight months, users ignored 81% of calls originating from 140-series numbers and 79% of calls from 1600-series numbers.
Users Blocking More Calls from Dedicated Number Series
The company highlighted a sharp rise in manual blocking activity associated with these numbers. It said blocking actions against 1600-series numbers have increased by 208% since October 2025.
Truecaller reported that users have manually blocked around 74 million calls originating from the two number series during the period. On a daily basis, approximately four lakh calls from 140-series numbers and 1.25 lakh calls from 1600-series numbers are being blocked by users.
Explaining the company’s recent decision to introduce a “Frequently Blocked” badge for such numbers, Jhunjhunwala said, “We said enough is enough.” He added, “If a 1600 series number is blocked by many people, we surface this information - but we do not mark it as spam.”
The feature was introduced after reports emerged that TRAI had approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), seeking authority to regulate caller ID applications. The badge indicates when a number has been blocked by a large number of users without categorising it as spam.
Truecaller Opposes Caller ID App Regulation
Responding to reports about possible regulation of caller identification platforms, Jhunjhunwala strongly opposed the idea.
“This makes absolutely no sense. We are the good actors who are helping hundreds of millions of Indians every day… Instead, they want to enable bad actors and give them an open playground to spam and scam us by censoring community information,” he said.
He further urged authorities to focus enforcement efforts on those generating spam communications rather than platforms helping users identify suspicious calls. “penalise the bad actors, not the ones like Truecaller,” he said.
TRAI introduced the dedicated numbering framework under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2025. The rules reserve 140-series numbers for promotional communications, while 1600-series numbers are intended for transactional messages and calls related to banking and financial services.
Truecaller said it plans to present its data to MeitY, arguing that restrictions on displaying community-generated spam information have reduced consumer trust and created opportunities for spammers to misuse the dedicated numbering ecosystem.