Centre clarifies on misleading reports on 1600 and 140 series phone numbers

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The government on Friday issued clarifications on certain media reports regarding functioning of designated 1600 series and 140 series, which could potentially lead to misinformation or misinterpretation of operation of these designated series.

According to the TRAI, the 1600 series numbers are mandated for service and transaction calls by regulated entities of BFSI sector.

These calls are for entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA to their existing customers and by government entities for government to citizen communication.

“A key objective of assigning designated series for these important communications is to make such calls trustworthy for the customers/ citizen. 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,” the TRAI said in a statement.

Moreover, the use of 140xx series numbers has been mandated for making promotional calls by entities of any sector.

“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. The 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 Do Not Disturb (DND) registry,” informed the telecom regulator.