AI calling in India: DLT, declared numbers, calling hours and consent

Say your launch weekend brought in more enquiries than your pre-sales team can call back by Monday. Someone suggests letting AI call them back. It’s a fair idea. The first question anyone sensible asks is whether it’s allowed.

It is, with conditions. India’s rules on business calls changed twice in the last two years, and they now speak to AI calls directly. This guide walks through each condition in plain words, with the source for every one.

In short, yes, a business can use AI to call people in India. It must be registered as a sender on DLT, call from a number in the right series, declare its automated calls to its operator, respect each person’s preferences, and have a reason to call: a recent enquiry, an application, a purchase or registered consent.

The checklist for AI calling in India

Requirement	What it means	Source
Register on DLT	The business registers as a sender (Principal Entity) on an operator’s DLT platform, with its headers and content templates.	TCCCPR 2018
Call from the right series	Promotional calls come from 140 series numbers. Service and transactional calls come from 1600 series numbers. Ordinary 10-digit numbers are not for commercial calls.	Second Amendment 2025
Declare automated calls	Calls started by software, including AI and recorded voices, are declared to the operator in advance with the numbers used. Undeclared ones are treated as spam.	Third Amendment 2026, reg. 4
Have a reason to call	An enquiry in writing or digital form (7 days), an application (3 months), a purchase (for as long as the contract runs), or explicit consent recorded with the operators.	Third Amendment 2026, reg. 2
Respect preferences	People can block promotional calls by category, by time band and by day through 1909 or their operator’s app. Real estate is its own category.	TCCCPR 2018, Schedule II
Stop when asked	After someone opts out, a business may not ask them for consent again for 90 days.	Second Amendment 2025
Personal data	Collect only what the purpose needs, tell people what it is for, and let them withdraw consent as easily as they gave it.	DPDP Act 2023, ss. 5 to 7

DLT registration: who your buyers see calling

DLT is the shared register the telecom operators run under TRAI’s 2018 regulations. A business that sends commercial calls or SMS registers there as a Principal Entity, then adds its sender names (headers) and the templates of what it sends.

Operators check traffic against these records. Calls from an unregistered sender don’t get through, however good the pitch.

The step-by-step version, with the documents and the fees, is in Get ready for AI calling in India.

140 and 1600 numbers for business calls

TRAI’s 2025 amendment moved commercial calls onto special number series. TRAI’s press release names 140 for promotional calls and 1600 for transactional and service calls. A buyer can tell from the number what kind of call it is.

Under the 2026 amendment, caller identification apps may not mark these series as spam wholesale.

Do AI calls need to be declared?

Yes. From the 2026 amendment, a call started by an application, software or an automated platform without a person dialling is an automated call. That includes calls in a recorded or artificial voice.

The business declares its use of such calls to its operator in advance, with the numbers it will call from, and the operator records it on DLT. This part applies 60 days after the amendment is published in the Gazette.

The amendment also sets a termination charge of up to 5 paise a minute on automated calls. Calls from the 140, 1600 and 1601 series are exempt from it.

What hours can you call customers in India?

You’ll often hear 9 am to 9 pm. That figure comes from TRAI’s 2010 regulations, which the 2018 regulations replaced. Today the limit works through each person’s time band preferences.

Under the 2018 regulations, these bands are off for promotional calls unless the person turns them on: midnight to 6 am, 6 am to 8 am, 8 am to 10 am, and 9 pm to midnight. In practice, promotional calls go between 10 am and 9 pm. Service and transactional calls are not blocked by time band.

Promotional calls in India by hour, India time. The grey bands are off unless the person turns them on (TCCCPR 2018, Schedule II). Service and transactional calls are not blocked by time band.

A reason to call: enquiry, application, purchase or consent

Every call needs a basis, and each basis lasts a different length of time. This is the table your pre-sales team will look at most.

Basis	How long it lasts
An enquiry, in writing or digital, kept on record	7 days from the enquiry
An application for a product or service	3 months
A purchase or other transaction	As long as the contract runs
Explicit consent, recorded with the operators	Until the person withdraws it

The seven-day rule is new in 2026. It is explained, with a day-by-day example, in TRAI’s 7-day enquiry window.

Consent and personal data under the DPDP Act

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act asks for consent that is free, specific, informed and clear, given by a clear action. A request for consent comes with a notice of what data is collected and why.

The Act gives an example close to real estate: a person who writes to a broker for help renting a home may be helped with the data she gave, until she says she no longer needs it.

The notice and consent duties start 18 months after 13 November 2025, the date the Act’s commencement notice and the DPDP Rules were published.

A sample consent line for an enquiry form

Adapt it with your own legal adviser before you use it:

I agree that [Company] may contact me about this enquiry by phone, including calls in an automated or AI voice, and by WhatsApp, SMS and email. I can withdraw this at any time by writing to [email] or replying STOP.

Keep the time and the page it was given on. For calls after the seven-day enquiry window, consent also has to be registered with the operators.

How Intend handles the rules

Every AI call goes through one check before it is placed: country, DLT registration, calling hours, a reason to call, the number of attempts and opt-outs. If anything is missing, the call doesn’t happen.
For India, an enquiry allows calls for seven days from its recorded time, and not after.
Opt-outs are honoured on every channel.
We set up the registration with you: we draft the authorisation letter, order the calling number and add the call template on DLT.

Where to start

If you’re weighing AI calls for your project enquiries, start with two things you already own. Check whether your company is on DLT, often through an old SMS vendor. Then add a clear consent line to your enquiry forms, so every new lead arrives with a record behind it.

When you’re ready for the rest, the setup guide lists every document. If you’d like to see how the calls themselves work for a developer, read AI that answers and calls your buyers.

Sources

A plain summary of the texts above as of the date at the top, not legal advice. Questions: hello@tryintend.com.