140 vs 160 vs 1600 Series: Which Number Must Your Calls Come From?
Promotional calls on 140, lenders' and insurers' service calls on 1600, other sectors on 1601. The 2026 deadlines, who is covered and the new rules for AI calls.
Last updated: 10 October 2026.
Which number a business calls from is now a compliance decision, not a telecom detail. India has three special series for commercial calls: 140 for promotional calls, 1600 for service and transactional calls from banks, NBFCs, insurers and other financial entities, and the new 1601 for service calls from other sectors. The "160 series" most people search for is the 1600 and 1601 pair. Calling from an ordinary 10-digit mobile number is, for most of these calls, no longer allowed.
This guide is for collections, servicing and dealer teams that need to know which series applies to them, what the deadlines were, and what changes now that AI voice calls have their own rules.
The quick answer
| Series | Who uses it | Which calls | Status in October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140xx | Any business, through a registered telemarketer or as a registered sender | Promotional: offers, cross-sell, new loans, test-drive invitations | Mandatory for all promotional calls |
| 1600-ABC-XXX | Entities regulated by RBI, SEBI, PFRDA and IRDAI, and government bodies | Service and transactional: EMI reminders, account alerts, KYC, policy servicing | Mandatory since the 2026 deadlines below |
| 1601-ABC-XXX | Other sectors, phase by phase | Service and transactional only | Phase I opened 10 August 2026 for utilities, courier and logistics only |
| Ordinary 10-digit number | Individual employees | Not for commercial calls from a business that should be on 140 or 1600 | Treated as an unregistered telemarketer when complaints arrive |
1600 series: the deadlines for lenders and insurers
TRAI's Direction of 19 November 2025 made the 1600 series mandatory for RBI, SEBI and PFRDA regulated entities in phases, and a Direction of 16 December 2025 did the same for IRDAI entities:
| Entities | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Commercial banks | 1 January 2026 |
| NBFCs with assets above ₹5,000 crore, small finance banks, payments banks | 1 February 2026 |
| Mutual funds and AMCs, PFRDA entities, all IRDAI-regulated insurers and intermediaries | 15 February 2026 |
| All other NBFCs, co-operative banks, regional rural banks | 1 March 2026 |
| Qualified stockbrokers | 15 March 2026 |
After its date, an entity may not place service or transactional calls from any other number, "even with the explicit or inferred consent of customers". RBI's January 2025 circular extends this to calls made "through ... channel partners, DSAs, BPO partner, in-house or outsourced call center". So the collection agency calling on your behalf is covered too.
The consequence is the unregistered-telemarketer regime from TRAI's February 2025 amendment: complaints from five recipients within ten days bar all of the sender's outgoing numbers for 15 days, and a repeat means disconnection for a year and blacklisting. In April to June 2026 alone, TRAI reported 1,37,053 telecom resources (numbers, SIP and PRI lines) barred for 15 days and 46,786 disconnected for a year.
Are collection calls "service calls"?
No regulator has ruled on this. TRAI's definition of a service call covers information "pertaining to a product or service procured by such customer". An EMI or due-date reminder to an existing borrower fits that plainly, so pre-due and early-bucket reminders belong on 1600. Calls after default are less clear, and some advisers argue they sit outside the mandate. The safe course is to place all of them from 1600 and keep them free of any offer: TRAI treats a call that mixes promotional content into a service call as promotional, and a promotional call from a 1600 number draws the same penalties.
Auto dealers and other sectors: the 1601 gap
Dealers cannot take 1600 numbers, which are reserved for financial and government entities, and automobiles are not in 1601's first phase. Until TRAI adds them:
- Test-drive invitations, offers and exchange campaigns go on 140. Customers can block "Consumer goods and automobiles" as a category, so these calls will not reach them unless they consented.
- Service reminders and booking confirmations have no designated series yet. Keep them strictly about the customer's own vehicle, with no offer attached, so they stay service calls.
- If the dealership sources loans for a bank or NBFC, the lender's rules can reach those loan calls.
New for AI and automated calls: the September 2026 amendment
TRAI's Third Amendment of 18 September 2026 defines an "Application-to-Person" or A2P call as one placed by software "without direct human dialling", including "artificial voice technologies". An AI voice agent's calls are A2P calls. Three rules follow:
- Declare them. The sender must tell its telecom operator in advance that it makes A2P calls and which number ranges it uses. An undeclared A2P call is treated as unsolicited commercial communication.
- Use a designated series. Operators may charge up to 5 paise a minute on A2P calls, but not on calls from 140, 1600 or 1601 numbers. Calls from these series also cannot be flagged as spam by operators, and call-management apps may not blanket-block or spam-tag them.
- Fewer complaints trigger action. If TRAI's AI system has already flagged a sender's number, three complaints in ten days are enough, down from five.
The declaration rule and the A2P charge apply 60 days after the amendment is published in the Gazette, and the lower complaint threshold after 90 days.
What about calling hours?
TRAI does not set a "9am to 9pm" rule. Customers can block time bands, and the bands from 9pm to 10am are off by default for promotional calls. Service and transactional calls are not blocked by time band. The hard limits come from RBI: 8am to 7pm for recovery calls from 1 January 2027, and 9am to 7pm for banks' sales calls. We covered both in our post on the RBI recovery agent guidelines.
A five-point checklist
- List every team and vendor that calls customers, including agencies, DSAs and dealer partners.
- Tag each call type as promotional or service. Anything with an offer is promotional and goes on 140.
- Move every service and collection call to 1600 numbers (or 1601 when your sector opens), including calls your agencies make.
- If any calls are automated or AI-voiced, declare them and their number ranges to your operator before the A2P rules take effect.
- Watch complaints weekly. Three or five in ten days is now enough to lose every number you own.
Where a lender or insurer must call from 1600, Uservox places its AI calls from the customer's own 1600 numbers, so moving reminders and collections to an AI agent does not mean going back to 10-digit numbers.
Sources
- TRAI, Direction F. No. G-6/(8)/2025-QoS-Part(1), 19 November 2025: phase-wise adoption of 1600 series by RBI, SEBI and PFRDA regulated entities.
- TRAI, Direction of 16 December 2025: 1600 series for IRDAI regulated entities.
- TRAI, Direction of 10 August 2026: allocation of the 1601 series, Phase I.
- TRAI, TCCCPR (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2025, No. RG-25/(25)/2023-QoS, 12 February 2025.
- TRAI, TCCCPR (Third Amendment) Regulations, 2026, 18 September 2026.
- TRAI, Press Release 91/2026, 10 July 2026, and Press Release 111/2026, 4 August 2026.
- Reserve Bank of India, RBI/2024-25/105, 17 January 2025: prevention of financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS.
- TRAI, TCCCPR 2018, consolidated as on 21 May 2026: Schedule-II preference categories and time bands.
This is a summary for operations teams, not legal advice. Check how it applies to you with your compliance team.
