1601 Series Calls in India: What These Numbers Mean and How They Differ From 140 and 1600

1601 Series Phone Calls in India: If you have recently received a phone call from a number beginning with 1601, you may have wondered whether it is a spam call, a scam attempt or a genuine service message. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has started the phased implementation of the 1601 numbering series for service and transactional calls made by certain authorised entities outside the banking, financial services, insurance and government sectors. 

The objective is to make it easier for mobile users to distinguish genuine service-related calls from promotional calls and ordinary mobile-number-based communications.

There is, however, an important distinction: 1600 and 1601 are not meant for exactly the same category of organisations.