What are 140-series numbers and when must they be used?

Why the series exists

When telemarketing calls looked like any other call, people could not tell a sales pitch from a personal call. TRAI's rules reserved the 140 prefix for promotional voice calls so people can recognise them at a glance and decide whether to answer. TRAI has since required 140-series calling to be brought onto the DLT platform, linking each call to a registered entity.

Who gets them

Operators allot 140-series numbers to registered telemarketers, who place calls on behalf of principal entities. A business either works through a registered telemarketer or registers as one. The calls are tagged to the business's DLT entity, so complaints trace back to the right sender. Because the 140 prefix signals promotion, a service number should never carry promotional pitches. Keeping the two apart also makes complaint handling simpler, since each number has one clear purpose.

When you need them, and when you may not

• —Promotional pitches to people who have not asked to hear from you: 140-series.
• —Service and transactional calls from banks, insurers, brokers and other financial regulated entities: the 1600-series, as their regulators direct.
• —Callbacks to a customer's own enquiry, appointment reminders and order confirmations: generally service calls, made on a registered calling line rather than the 140-series.

The trade-off

140-series calls are honest but many people ignore numbers they recognise as promotional. That is one reason businesses lean on fast callbacks to fresh enquiries, which are not cold promotion, rather than mass cold calling.

How Outpero fits

Outpero's dedicated phone number, at ₹649 a month including compliance and carrier fees, is a DLT-registered calling line. Ask Outpero which route fits your campaign before running anything promotional, whether as AI conversations or voice broadcast.