Resources · Guide
India calling rules:a checklist for your floor
Ten things every sales, telecalling and collections team in India should have in place, in plain English, each with the official source.
Checked against TRAI and RBI documents on 7 November 2026. A summary, not legal advice.
- 1
Register on DLT before your first promotional call
The business sending the calls (the principal entity) and any telemarketer working for it must register with a telecom operator on the DLT platform. Since 2025 that includes physical verification and biometric checks, and no more than two telemarketers may sit between you and the customer.
- 2
Make promotional calls only from 140-series numbers
Ordinary 10-digit mobile numbers can't be used for telemarketing. A first offence bars outgoing calls on all your connections for 15 days. A repeat means disconnection across every operator for a year and blacklisting.
- 3
Use 1600-series numbers for service calls if you are regulated by RBI, SEBI, IRDAI or PFRDA
Banks, NBFCs, insurers, mutual funds, pension bodies and stockbrokers must make service and transactional calls from 1600 numbers. The deadlines ran from 1 January to 15 March 2026, so they now apply. Other SEBI intermediaries can move voluntarily for now.
- 4
Tell your telecom operator in writing that you use an auto-dialer
Since the 2025 amendment, anyone using auto-dialers or robocalls must inform the operator their calls go out through, in advance. A predictive dialer counts.
- 5
Respect DND choices, and keep your own do-not-call list
Customers can block all commercial calls, only promotional ones, or any of eight categories such as banking, real estate, education and health. Operators check 140-series calls against those choices before they connect. Anyone who tells you directly to stop calling belongs on your own do-not-call list too.
- 6
Collect consent the official way
Consent recorded through the operators' Digital Consent Acquisition system (requests come from 127xxx short codes and name your brand) lets your promotional calls reach people who have DND on. It lasts until the customer withdraws it. Once they do, you can't ask again for 90 days.
- 7
Plan promotional calls for 10 am to 9 pm
Under TRAI's rules, the time bands before 10 am and after 9 pm are off by default for every customer, unless they choose otherwise. The often-quoted 9 am to 9 pm comes from older regulations that have been replaced.
- 8
Collections: call borrowers only between 8 am and 7 pm
RBI bars recovery calls before 8 am or after 7 pm for banks, NBFCs and other regulated lenders. From 1 January 2027, recovery calls must also be recorded, the borrower told, and recordings kept for six months.
- 9
Expect complaints to count faster
Customers now have 7 days to report a spam call, and 5 complaints against a sender within 10 days is enough for operators to act.
- 10
Treat call recordings as personal data
India's data protection law doesn't mention call recording by name, but a recorded call is personal data. Tell people you record and why, protect the recordings, and delete them once you no longer need them. Most duties under the DPDP Rules apply from May 2027.
Where TelVox Dial helps
- Your do-not-call list is checked when you import leads and again just before every dial.
- Calls stay inside your calling hours, worked out in each customer's time zone.
- Every call can be recorded, and an audit log shows who changed what.
Registration, number series and consent sit with you and your telecom operator. We're happy to talk them through on a demo.