This is our reading of the rules as of 8 November 2026, written to help sales teams. It isn't legal advice. Check the sources below, and ask a lawyer before you rely on it.
the rules in one table
| kind of call | number series | notes |
|---|---|---|
| promotional, like a sales pitch | 140 | Only from registered telemarketers, and only to people who haven't blocked that category on DND. |
| service and transactional, like a bank alert or an update on an order | 1600 | For banks, businesses and government bodies, for calls that aren't selling. |
| any telemarketing from an ordinary 10-digit number | not allowed | This is the practice the 2025 amendment targets most directly. |
what changed in February 2025
TRAI amended its Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR, 2018) in February 2025. As reported, the changes came into effect 30 days after publication in the Gazette.
- People get 7 days, up from 3, to complain about spam calls and messages.
- Telecom operators must investigate within 5 days, down from 30.
- Action against an unregistered sender starts at 5 complaints in 10 days, down from 10 complaints in 7 days.
- A first violation bars outgoing services on all of the sender's telecom resources for 15 days. Repeat violations mean disconnection for one year and blacklisting across all operators.
- Operators that fail to enforce the rules face financial penalties of ₹2 lakh, ₹5 lakh and then ₹10 lakh per instance.
does this apply to B2B sales calls?
Yes, when you call someone's mobile number to sell. The rules are about commercial communication to telecom subscribers. They don't make an exception because the person you're calling is a buyer at a company. If an SDR pitches from their own mobile number and the person complains, it's that number, and potentially every number registered to your company, that's at risk.
what a sales team should actually do
- Make calls warm. Call people who replied to an email or a LinkedIn message, or who booked time. A cold pitch to a mobile number is the riskiest kind of outreach in India today.
- If you run outbound calling at volume, register as a telemarketer through your telecom provider's DLT system and use the 140 series, or use a calling provider that does this properly.
- Keep a do-not-call list across your team, and add anyone who asks not to be called, on the spot.
- Record why you're calling and when the person agreed to it. It's the evidence you'll want if there's a complaint, and the DPDP Act will ask for it from May 2027 too.
- Don't rotate personal numbers to dodge complaints. Barring now applies to every number tied to the sender.
how DND works for the person you're calling
Anyone can block all promotional calls, or only some categories, by calling or texting 1909 from their phone, or through their operator's app. Registered telemarketers' calls are checked against these preferences before they go through. Unregistered callers skip that check, which is exactly why the rules now punish them.