The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed all entities regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to adopt ‘1600’ series numbers by February 15, 2026, for making service and transactional calls to the consumers.
The mandate regarding the deadline is being issued in consultation with IRDAI and the move is aimed at enhancing consumer trust, curbing spam and preventing fraudulent activities perpetrated through voice calls. TRAI had already issued similar directions for mandatory adoptions of 1600 series numbers by entities regulated by RBI, SEBI and PFRDA.
TRAI said in response to its regulatory initiative the 1600 numbering series has been assigned by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for allocation to entities in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector and government organisations to clearly distinguish their service and transactional calls from other commercial communications. The series will enable citizens to reliably identify legitimate calls originating from regulated financial entities.
After the assignment of the series and allocation of numbering resources to the telecom service providers, TRAI has been engaging with the TSPs and the BFSI sector regulators for adoption of 1600 series by BFSI sector entities. About 570 entities have already adopted 1600 series numbers, subscribing to a total of over 3,000 numbers. TRAI’s said the time is ripe to mandate timebound completion of the exercise so that entities continuing to use standard 10-digit numbers for service and transactional calls also shift to 1600 series numbers to reduce the risk of fraudulent or misleading calls being made in the guise of trusted financial institutions.
Published – December 17, 2025 10:56 pm IST
