compliance
Permitted calling hours
The window of time during which the law allows telemarketing calls, set by the time zone of the person you are calling, not your own location.
Permitted calling hours are the times of day the law lets you make telemarketing calls. In the US the federal window is generally 8am to 9pm, but the clock that matters is the local time of the person you are calling, not the time where your call center happens to sit. Calling a number outside its own local window is a violation even if it is comfortably mid-afternoon for your agents.
VICIdial handles this with call times, a setting attached to each campaign and list that defines the allowed window. The dialer works out a lead's local time from its area code and the stored gmt offset, then refuses to dial any number that currently falls outside the window. The catch is that this only works if your time-zone data is accurate. Get the offsets wrong and the dialer will happily place calls at 6am someone's time, so loading clean area-code-to-time-zone data is part of the job, not an afterthought.
Some states set tighter windows than the federal default, and where they do, you have to honor the stricter of the two. A state dnc program often carries its own hour rules bundled in with the suppression list. The general idea of a hard stop at the edge of the window, after which the dialer simply will not place a call, is sometimes called a calling curfew. When the window closes, those leads do not get dropped; they just wait, much the way an after hours inbound caller waits for the next business day.
Calling-hour limits come from the tcpa and from state rules layered on top. This is a practical summary, not legal advice. The safe setup is conservative call_times entries combined with accurate area-code time zones, so the dialer never has to guess a lead's local time and never reaches someone at a banned hour. When in doubt, narrow the window rather than widen it.
Related terms
After hours
After hours is the period when your call center is closed, when inbound calls are routed to a special message, voicemail, or callback instead of agents.
Calling curfew
A calling curfew is the band of hours during which outbound calls are allowed, typically blocking early mornings and late evenings in the lead's local time.
Call times
Call times are the rules that say which hours of the day a campaign is allowed to dial, so you don't call people outside legal or sensible windows.
GMT offset (lead)
A number stored on each lead that tells VICIdial the lead's local time zone so the dialer only calls during the hours allowed for that area.
State DNC list
A do-not-call list kept by an individual US state, which marketers must honor in addition to the federal registry when calling residents of that state.
TCPA
The TCPA is a US law restricting automated calls and texts, requiring consent before dialing cell phones with autodialers and limiting when and how often you may call.