Spam Calls: Will Truecaller face stricter regulations now? Find out why TRAI has sought new powers from MeitY..

Spam Calls India: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) states that call management apps often mistakenly flag legitimate calls originating from the 140 series (telemarketing) and 1600 series (banking and government services) as spam. Consequently, people miss important banking, government, or business calls, which impacts service delivery.

What is TRAI's proposal?
TRAI has requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to designate these numbers—specifically the 140 and 1600 series—as "Authorized Agencies" under the IT Act. If this happens, TRAI could enforce regulations and oversight regarding how call management apps handle these numbers. Currently, the Ministry is discussing this proposal with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Directives issued previously
This is not the first time such an issue has arisen. Just recently, TRAI directed Truecaller and other call management apps not to display spam warnings for calls from the 140 and 1600 series. TRAI maintains that these numbers are allocated for legitimate business and government services.

Responding to this, Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala stated that the company is complying with TRAI's directives and is whitelisting these numbers. However, he also questioned the extent of TRAI's jurisdiction in this matter.

According to the company, over 51 million (5.1 crore) calls from these two series go unanswered daily, and users have manually blocked more than 74 million (7.4 crore) calls.

What is Truecaller's stance?
Truecaller has its own concerns regarding this. The company argues that if spam warnings are prohibited for these numbers, cybercriminals could exploit the situation. The company claims this would undermine user trust and make it difficult to identify spam or fraudulent calls.

What happens next?

Currently, MeitY is consulting with the DoT regarding TRAI's proposal. If the proposal is approved, a clear regulatory framework could be established in India for the first time for call management apps like Truecaller.

This move would not only impact the identification of spam calls but could also bring about significant changes in the user experience for banking, government, and business calls.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from Amar Ujala. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.