New Delhi, Aug 10 (PTI) The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday directed the use of a separate 1601-series number for transactional and service calls by entities in sectors other than Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) and Government.

In the first phase, the 1601 number series will cover transactional and service calls made by entities in utilities, courier and logistics sectors, TRAI said, making it clear that such dedicated number series should not be used for promotional voice calls by any entity.

At present, the 1600-series numbers are allotted for service and transactional calls by the BFSI sector and Government entities.

The telecom regulator said that considering the critical and sensitive nature of communications made by the entities in the BFSI sector and Government, a separate series of 1601 has been issued for other sectors in order to avoid mixing of important financial voice calls with the service and transactional calls from the other sectors.

“After widespread adoption of the 1600-series numbers for service and transactional calls by BFSI sector entities, which has provided valuable experience for extending the trusted numbering framework to the other sectors also, TRAI has now initiated phase-wise implementation of the 1601-series allotted by the DoT (Department of Telecom) for similar calls by the entities in sectors other than the BFSI sector and Government,” TRAI said.

According to the regulator, based on consultations with stakeholders, it has been decided to implement 1601-series, covering entities in utilities, courier and logistics sectors under Phase-I.

The 1601-series numbers will be allocated directly to eligible entities, and not to intermediaries or aggregators, after due verification by the telecom service providers (TSPs).

Their adoption is, therefore, expected to become an important tool in combating impersonation by fraudsters who use normal 10-digit numbers and falsely claim to represent legitimate businesses, TRAI said.

Moreover, the distinct numbering identity will enable consumers to easily identify legitimate service and transactional calls, thereby strengthening trust in such voice-based communications, as per TRAI.

Accordingly, the 1601-series shall be initially allocated to the eligible entities in the utilities and logistics and courier services space. The category of utilities entails electricity distribution companies, water utilities, city gas distribution companies, LPG distribution entities and similar other utility service providers.

The logistics and courier services companies would include courier firms, express logistics companies, parcel delivery service providers, as well as freight and logistics service providers engaged in delivery of consignments.

The telecom operators have been asked to complete migration and on-boarding of eligible entities covered under the first phase within 90 days.

"The TSPs shall verify the eligibility of entities before assigning 1601-series numbers, and obtain an undertaking from them regarding exclusive use of these numbers for service and transactional voice calls," TRAI said.

It is pertinent to mention that while TRAI mandated the use of 1600 series numbers for service and transaction calls by regulated banking, financial services and insurance or BFSI entities, and government-to-citizen communications, the 140 series numbers are for promotional calls by registered entities across sectors.

Last month, there was a standoff between TRAI and Truecaller over the display of tags on dedicated 140 and 1600 number series. Truecaller alleged that spam calls have surged after TRAI mandated the use of dedicated 140 and 1600 number series while preventing caller ID apps from displaying community-reported spam information for those numbers.

The regulator hit back, saying Truecaller should display a label informing users that they can "exercise their choice" to block unwanted communication from the 140 series through TRAI's official Do Not Disturb (DND) preference management app.

TRAI has repeatedly cautioned call management apps and users that under no circumstances should the 1600 number be tagged as such, given that this series is used for service and transaction calls by regulated entities of the BFSI sector (entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA) to their existing customers and by government entities for government-to-citizen communication.

What this implies is calls from the 1600 series could range from fraud alerts to transaction verification, and tagging or labelling them in any form may have adverse consequences for consumers.

According to a recent TRAI report, as many as 1.15 billion calls originated from 1600 dedicated series numbers during Q1 FY2026-27. PTI MBI SHM