TRAI allots new 160 mobile phone series to key financial entities to curb spams

The government has allocated 160 mobile phone series for making transactional and service voice calls for all entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA in the first phase, in order to prevent the duping of citizens from the fraudsters.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) met representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), and other financial institutions and all the telecom service providers (TSPs).

Once the 160 mobile series is implemented, it will help in the easy identification of the calling entity.

The meeting provided a platform for the exchange of ideas among the regulators, entities and telecom service providers regarding the effective utilisation of this series, said the Ministry of Communications.

The operation of the 140 series, at present being used for promotional purposes, is being migrated to distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform and scrubbing of digital consent is also being operationalised, said the Ministry.

“With the implementation of the above two measures, substantial control on spam calls from 10-digit numbers is expected,” said the Ministry.

At the meeting, the regulators, banks and other financial institutions emphasised the need to work collaboratively to curb the menace of spam, particularly through voice calls and assured all cooperation for implementation of various initiatives by TRAI in a time-bound manner.