Overview
- The new rule took effect on Saturday, October 17, 2026, and requires covered companies to place outbound commercial calls on nine‑digit numbers beginning with the 400 prefix.
- The obligation applies to large firms and essential‑service providers while small telecom and energy sellers with under 5% market share are exempt.
- Operators must make the 400 range operational, block commercial calls from other numerations and offer customers the option to disconnect commercial calling services.
- Numbers in the 400 range are unidirectional so consumers cannot call them back and customer‑service calls must use separate 800/900 or geographic numbers.
- Consumer groups praise clearer ID but warn the prefix will not stop spoofing or international fraud and are pushing for a public registry linking 400 numbers to companies and for stronger, dissuasive sanctions as a parallel sanction file against a major telco proceeds.