Truecaller CEO: TRAI's Rules Worsened India's Spam Call Problem

Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala has publicly criticized India's Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI), alleging that the regulator's own rules are worsening the country's spam call problem. According to Jhunjhunwala, TRAI's directives mandate that Truecaller whitelist certain number series, thereby preventing the app from flagging them as spam or warning users.

The issue stems from TRAI's mandate in late 2025, which requires businesses to use specific number series for telemarketing (140) and financial services (1600). TRAI subsequently ordered caller-identification apps, which are not under its direct jurisdiction but fall under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), to not block or tag calls from these series. This has created a situation where Truecaller cannot warn users about potentially unwanted calls from these designated numbers.

TRAI is now seeking further authority to regulate such application intermediaries directly. It has requested designation as an 'authorised agency' under the IT Act, which would allow it to take action against apps like Truecaller. Proposed amendments would require these apps to share spam data with telecom operators and prohibit them from blocking or tagging calls from the 140 and 1600 series, with non-compliance risking their legal protections.

Truecaller argues that this policy has backfired. The company reports that users now ignore 81% of 140-series calls and 79% of 1600-series calls, and manual blocking of 1600-series numbers has tripled. The company contends that TRAI is targeting the messenger rather than the sender, failing to address the root causes of spam while reducing users' ability to identify and avoid fraudulent communications.