What are TRAI rules for promotional calls?
TRAI's rules for promotional calls come from the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations 2018 (TCCCP 2018) and later amendments. In short: register the business on DLT, place promotional calls only through registered telemarketers on 140-series numbers, skip numbers whose DND preferences block your category unless you hold valid consent, and act on opt-outs and complaints. Unregistered promotional calling can get a sender's connections cut.
The core rules
- 01Entity registration: the business registers as a principal entity on an operator's DLT platform.
- 02Number series: promotional voice calls come from 140-prefixed numbers allotted to registered telemarketers, so people can recognise them.
- 03Preferences: the DND list lets subscribers block all promotional calls or chosen categories, time bands and days; promotional calls must honour it.
- 04Consent: explicit consent, captured in a verifiable way, can override a category block for that sender.
- 05Complaints: people report unsolicited calls through 1909 or the TRAI DND app, and repeated complaints trigger action against the sender.
What changed recently
In August 2024 TRAI directed operators to stop promotional voice calls, including pre-recorded and computer-generated calls, from unregistered senders using SIP, PRI or other telecom resources, with disconnection and blacklisting of the sender for up to two years. The February 2025 amendment to TCCCP 2018 now sets the ladder in the regulation itself: a 15-day bar on outgoing services for a first violation, and disconnection and blacklisting for one year for repeat violations. In 2025 TRAI amended TCCCP 2018 again, giving consumers more time to complain and tightening action against senders, including those using ordinary 10-digit numbers for telemarketing.
Promotional versus service calls
The strictest rules land on promotional calls: calls that pitch a product or offer to someone without a relationship or consent. Service and transactional calls, such as an appointment confirmation, have more room, but slipping a sales pitch into one turns it promotional.
The rules also do not care how the call is placed. Auto-dialers, AI agents and recorded broadcasts are all covered, and the sender is identified through its DLT registration, so the obligations follow the business whichever vendor or trunk it uses.
How Outpero fits
Outpero calls from a DLT-registered line, screens bulk lists against DND and applies a calling window per campaign. Whether a given campaign counts as promotional, and whether your consent is strong enough, remains a judgment for your business.
Complaint thresholds and the consequences for senders are amended frequently. Read the latest TCCCP amendment on TRAI's website or ask your operator before planning a large campaign.
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Follow-up questions
Do TRAI promotional call rules apply to AI voice agents?
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Yes. TCCCP 2018 regulates commercial communication regardless of who or what makes the call. TRAI's August 2024 direction expressly covered pre-recorded and computer-generated promotional calls, so an AI agent pitching a product is held to the same registration, number-series and DND rules as a human telecaller or a recorded broadcast.