Telecom and calling rules

In India, the telecom regulator TRAI and the Department of Telecommunications decide which numbers businesses may call from, how automated calls must be declared and what the person you call sees on their screen. Several of these rules start between late October and December 2026.

Read TRAI's 2026 rules for AI and automated calls first. AI calling stays legal, but every call dialled by software, including AI agent and pre-recorded voice calls, is now an application-to-person (A2P) call. From 27 November 2026 a business must declare these calls and the caller numbers it uses to its operator in advance, or the calls are treated as spam. From 28 October 2026, calls after a customer enquiry are limited to seven days.

The 140, 1600 and 1601 number series set which range each call must come from. Promotional calls from any sector use 140 numbers. Service and transactional calls from banks, NBFCs, insurers, mutual funds, qualified stock brokers, pension bodies and government use 1600, and those deadlines have passed. Utilities, courier and logistics firms are moving to the new 1601 series, which operators should finish by about 8 November 2026.

CNAP, caller name display, changes what the person answering sees. From 1 November 2026 every mobile operator must show the caller's name on 4G and later networks by default. The name comes from operator records, so a business call usually shows the company name on its connection paperwork, and business customers can ask to show a registered trademark or GST trade name instead.

The dark patterns guidelines cover what is said once the call connects. The 2023 guidelines ban 13 tricks such as false urgency, hidden add-ons and drip pricing. They were written for apps and websites, and whether they reach phone calls is not settled, but RBI bans dark patterns for banks and NBFCs from 1 January 2027.