Truecaller CEO Challenges TRAI Over Anti-Spam Number Rules

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Truecaller are locked in a dispute over the regulation of caller identification apps and the management of designated number series. TRAI has mandated that 140-series numbers for promotions and 1600-series numbers for government and financial communications be whitelisted. Under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation, tagging or blocking these calls is prohibited to ensure trustworthy communications reach citizens, with 140-series blocks permitted only via the official Do Not Disturb registry.

Rishit Jhunjhunwala, CEO of Truecaller, argues these rules create a loophole for scammers to weaponize verified channels. He reports that users ignore roughly 80% of calls from these series, with 51 million calls going unanswered daily. To remain compliant while alerting users, Truecaller introduced a "Frequently Blocked" badge after daily manual blocks on these numbers exceeded 100,000.

In response to the conflict, TRAI has sought authorization from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to regulate call management apps under the IT Act, 2000. TRAI claims apps wrongly tag legitimate business calls, while the Internet and Mobile Association of India views the move as jurisdictional overreach. Jhunjhunwala has called for a formal consultation between TRAI, MeitY, and the Department of Telecommunications to address the rise in spam and penalize bad actors rather than the applications.