TL;DR
A 5-agent in-house call centre in India needs one business number, call routing, recording and per-agent reports. Plan fees for 5 agents run from about ₹999 to ₹5,000 a month plus GST, before call charges on some plans, depending on whether you need IVR menus and unlimited calling. No DoT OSP registration is needed: the government removed it in June 2021.
A 5-agent in-house call centre in India needs one business number, call routing, recording and per-agent reports, and plan fees for those 5 agents run from about ₹999 to ₹5,000 a month plus 18% GST. You do not need a DoT OSP registration; the government removed that requirement in June 2021.
What moves the price is whether you need IVR menus ("press 1 for sales") and how many minutes the plan includes. This guide is for a mostly inbound team in one office; for callers working from home, see our virtual call centre guide for remote sales teams.
Do you need an OSP licence to start a call centre?
No. DoT's revised Other Service Provider guidelines of 23 June 2021 say that "no registration will be required for OSP centres in India", domestic or international. Many older blogs still describe the registration process; it no longer applies.
Two things still do. Every business number needs KYC with the provider before it goes live. And if you run calls for other companies as a BPO, the same guidelines expect you to keep call data records and system logs for all customer calls.
Call centre setup checklist: 10 things for a 3 to 10 agent team
- One business number that customers see, owned by the company, not by an agent.
- Routing rules: who rings first, who rings next, and what happens when nobody answers.
- Business hours and an after-hours plan: voicemail, a callback, or an AI receptionist.
- Call recording with an announcement at the start of each call, so callers know.
- Per-agent reports: calls answered, missed calls, talk time, and callbacks done.
- A missed-call callback rule, for example "every missed call returned within 15 minutes".
- Headsets for every agent, and a quiet room or partitions.
- A reliable connection for each seat: good mobile signal for app-based calling, or wired internet for laptops and desk phones, with a backup.
- A lead sheet or CRM where each call's outcome is written down.
- Your outbound rules: which calls agents may make from the business number (see the rules section below).
Which phone system fits a 5-agent call centre?
Here is what 5 agents cost on each provider's cheapest plan that covers them.
| Plan | 5 agents, monthly before GST | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| TalkEasy Pro | ₹999 flat | Unlimited users, routing, recording, per-agent reports | 3 hours talktime a day included; extra ₹49 an hour |
| Knowlarity Advance | ₹1,400 (₹16,800 a year) | 5 users, 1,200 free minutes a month | Then 30 paise per 30 seconds |
| Exotel Believer | ₹1,818 (₹19,999 for 11 months) | 6 agents, 2 numbers, recordings, 9,500 credits | Calls draw down credit |
| Zoho Voice Standard | ₹2,499, billed annually | 1 admin and 10 agents | Call charges per minute |
| Tata Smartflo Lite | ₹4,750 (5 × ₹950), plus one-time ₹5,000 | DID per agent, 5-level IVR, unlimited India calls | 3-month minimum; fair-use cap |
| MyOperator Sedan | ₹5,000, billed yearly | 10 users, IVR, unlimited calling, WhatsApp chat | ₹60,000 + GST paid upfront |
| Acefone Professional | ₹9,594 (6-seat minimum × ₹1,599) | Unlimited India calls, 1 DID | You pay for 6 seats |
How we compared: prices and features from each provider's official page, checked in September 2026. Prices exclude 18% GST unless stated; Tata and Knowlarity don't state GST, so we treat their prices the same way.
How the monthly figures are worked out:
- Exotel: Dabbler covers only 3 agents, so 5 agents need Believer: ₹19,999 ÷ 11 months = ₹1,818 a month. The pack is ₹10,499 of rental plus 9,500 credits (₹1 each) for calls, SMS and WhatsApp.
- Knowlarity: ₹16,800 ÷ 12 = ₹1,400 a month. Calls beyond 1,200 free minutes cost 30 paise per 30 seconds.
- Tata: 5 licences × ₹950 = ₹4,750 a month. The 3-month minimum means you commit to ₹14,250, plus the one-time cost of ₹5,000.
- MyOperator: ₹5,000 × 12 = ₹60,000 a year, which is ₹70,800 upfront with GST.
The takeaway: if your agents mostly answer and return calls on one number, TalkEasy Pro, Knowlarity Advance or an Exotel pack keep the plan price under ₹2,000 a month. Each includes a fixed amount of calling (3 hours of talktime a day, 1,200 minutes a month, or 9,500 credits), so check it against a week of your real call minutes. If you need IVR menus with unlimited calling, budget ₹4,750 to ₹5,000 for Tata or MyOperator.
Call-flow plan you can copy
Fill this in before you set up any system. It takes ten minutes and gives whoever configures the system one clear brief.
Business number: ____________
Business hours: Mon to Sat, 9:30 am to 7:00 pm
Ring order:
Step 1: Agents A and B ring together for 20 seconds
Step 2: All available agents ring for 20 seconds
Step 3: Mark as missed; callback within 15 minutes
After hours: voicemail or callback next morning by 10:30 am
Sundays and holidays: same as after hours
Recording: on for all calls, with a start-of-call announcement
Who reviews reports: team lead, daily at 6:30 pm
Missed calls not returned by closing: escalate to owner
Keep the first version simple. Two steps in the ring order are enough for 5 agents; add IVR menus only when callers genuinely need to choose a department.
What rules apply before agents dial out?
Answering calls and calling back people who enquired are the lowest-risk work for a small call centre. Promotional calls are different: since TRAI's February 2025 amendment, ordinary 10-digit numbers cannot be used for telemarketing, and promotional calls must come from a registered 140-series number (PIB).
The penalty falls on your phone lines: a first violation bars outgoing calls on all your connections for 15 days, and a repeat disconnects them for a year. TRAI's amendment notified on 18 September 2026 will, once in force, lower the complaint trigger from 5 to 3 in 10 days when the operator's AI system also flags the number (TRAI). Our guide to outbound calling rules and recording shows which calls need which number.
How to go live in one week
- Day 1: fill in the call-flow plan and choose a plan from the table.
- Day 2: submit KYC documents; once the number is live, add every agent.
- Day 3: set the ring order, business hours and recording announcement.
- Day 4: each agent makes and receives five test calls on their own seat.
- Day 5: route a small share of real calls; the team lead listens to five recordings.
- Day 6: fix the ring order and scripts from what you heard.
- Day 7: switch all calls over and publish the number on ads and your website.
Our telecalling app guide covers the dialler side if your team will also work through lead lists, and the business phone number guide compares number types. To see which reports are worth reading every day, read our guide to cheap call analytics for small teams.
Where TalkEasy fits
TalkEasy by GrowEasy suits a 3 to 10 agent team that answers and returns calls on one shared number. Calls can be routed by team, department or availability, with separate office-hours rules, and every call is logged against the number whoever answers. Call analytics show total calls, answer rate, missed calls, talk time and per-agent performance. Pro costs ₹999 a month plus GST for unlimited users and includes 3 hours of talktime a day, with extra hours at ₹49; a team on the phone all day should compare that with the unlimited-calling plans above.
It is not the right pick if you need an IVR menu, a toll-free number or high-volume list dialling; Exotel, MyOperator or Tata Smartflo fit those better. See how TalkEasy handles team calling.
Last reviewed 24 September 2026.
