If your business sends promotional or transactional calls and messages in India, TRAI’s commercial communication rules apply to you. Getting them wrong can mean blocked numbers, undelivered messages and penalties from your telecom provider.
This checklist walks through the main areas outbound teams need to cover. Rules are updated from time to time, so treat it as a working guide and confirm the latest directions with your telecom provider before launching a campaign.
1. Know your message category
Everything starts with classifying what you are sending. The category decides which rules, numbers and approvals apply.
- Promotional — offers, marketing and anything intended to sell. Requires the strictest handling, including DND checks.
- Transactional — OTPs, payment confirmations, account alerts triggered by something the customer did.
- Service — information the customer has opted into, such as appointment or delivery updates.
Don’t mislabel
Sending marketing content through a transactional route is one of the most common reasons for blocked headers and blocked templates.
2. Register on DLT
TRAI’s regulations require businesses to register on the telecom operators’ Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform before sending commercial messages. Registration is where your business identity, sender IDs and approved content are recorded.
- Register your business as a principal entity with the required documents.
- Register your sender IDs (headers) for each category you use.
- Get every message template approved before it is used — variable fields must match the registered format.
- Link your template and header to your messaging provider so traffic can be delivered.
3. Capture and store consent
Consent is the foundation of compliant outreach. You should be able to show when a customer agreed, what they agreed to, and through which channel.
- Record the date, time, source and purpose of each consent.
- Keep consent purposes specific — agreement to receive account alerts is not agreement to receive offers.
- Make withdrawal of consent easy, and honour it promptly.
- Store records securely and keep them retrievable for audits.
4. Scrub against DND and preference lists
Customers can register preferences that restrict the promotional communication they receive. Before any promotional campaign, check your list against the national preference register and your own opt-out records.
- Scrub every promotional list before each campaign, not once a quarter.
- Maintain an internal do-not-contact list and apply it across voice, SMS and WhatsApp.
- Respect category-level preferences where customers have chosen them.
5. Use the right calling numbers and timings
Telecom regulation also governs which number ranges outbound calls may originate from, and when promotional calls may be placed.
- Use the designated calling series for your category of call, as currently specified by TRAI and your operator.
- Place promotional calls only within permitted hours — in general, daytime and early-evening hours.
- Avoid using ordinary 10-digit mobile numbers for bulk commercial calling.
- Show a valid caller identity so customers can recognise and trust the call.
Because series and directions are revised periodically, keep a named owner on your team responsible for checking current rules each quarter.
6. Keep audit-ready records
When a complaint arrives, speed matters. Keep the evidence in one place:
- Consent logs linked to each customer record.
- Approved templates, headers and registration details.
- Campaign logs showing who was contacted, when and through which channel.
- A documented process for handling complaints and opt-outs.
Key takeaways
Classify every message as promotional, transactional or service before you send it.
Register your entity, headers and templates on DLT — and keep them in sync with what you send.
Store specific, retrievable consent for every customer.
Scrub lists before each promotional campaign and use the correct calling series and hours.
Rules change: assign an owner to review current TRAI directions every quarter.
Express IVR Team
The Express IVR compliance desk helps outbound teams set up consent, DLT and calling workflows that stand up to audit.