Trai mandates 1600 series for insurance service calls by Feb 15, 2026

Trai has asked insurance-sector entities regulated by IRDAI to move service and transactional calls to 1600-series numbers by February 15, 2026, to curb spam and fraud

Indian telecom regulator has asked entities in the insurance sector to start using 1600 number series by mid-February 2026 for making service and transactional calls to the consumers. 

Entities that fall under the ambit of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) will have time till February 15 2025 to comply. The directions aim to curb spam, financial frauds, and digital arrests through voice calls, and reduce the risk of fraudulent or misleading calls being made in the guise of trusted financial institutions.   

The direction is part of the set of earlier directions issued on November 19 to financial entities regulated by the RBI, Sebi, and PFRDA for identification of their service and transaction calls, to use the 1600 number series beginning 2026.   

“Based on Trai’s interactions with stakeholders, it was considered that time is now 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,” the regulator said on Wednesday. 

Trai added that consequent to its efforts, about 570 entities have already adopted 1600 series numbers, subscribing to a total of over 3000 numbers.