India +91

Updated 1 year ago

Generally speaking there are two types of A2P traffic in this market: International & Domestic.

International: Requires no registrations, all messages deliver via shared or dedicated extended short codes

Domestic: this requires registrations within operator portals called "DLT". Registration with one portal will also register you with all portals. Registration should be completed by the brands themselves.

To register your brand with DLT, go here: DLT registration

1-Way SMS (Outbound, MT)

International - ILDO (International Long Distance Operator)

• Meant for all international companies sending notifications to their opted-in Indian subscriber base
• All sender address are overwritten to short codes
• No curfew or time restrictions for sending SMS.

Domestic

• Meant for local companies to communicate with their existing client base in India
• All sender addresses must be pre-registered
• Companies must have the business name in the messaging content

The subcategories for domestic traffic are:

Transactional

• Used only by banks & for OTP
• Content should be registered to ensure delivery
• 6-character alpha (A-Z) sender address
• Mobile Operators will add a two-letter prefix to the sender address (see Regulations and Best Practices
• No blocking of recipients that have opted out via NCPR (see Regulations and Best Practices)
• No time restrictions or curfews for sending SMS.

Service Implicit

• Used by all other businesses that wish to send transactional & OTP to their client base
• Content should be registered to ensure delivery
• 6-character alpha (A-Z) sender address
• Mobile Operators will add a two-letter prefix to the sender address (see Regulations and Best Practices)
• No blocking of recipients that have opted out via NCPR (see Regulations and Best Practices)
• No time restrictions or curfews for sending SMS.

Service Explicit

• Marketing communication for existing client base that have opted in to receive such messages
• Content should be registered to ensure delivery
• 6-character alpha (A-Z) sender address
• Mobile Operators will add a two-letter prefix to the alpha tag (see Regulations and Best Practices)
• Traffic will be blocked to subscribers that have opted out via NCPR (see Regulations and Best Practices). However, brands now have the option to upload their subscribers consent on DLT Portals and enable sending Service explicit and Promotional messages to them.

Promotional

• Used for bulk promotional campaigns
• Content should be registered to ensure delivery
• 6-character numeric (0-9) sender address (see Regulations and Best Practices under Domestic Promotional Number Ranges )
• Mobile Operators will add a two-letter prefix to the alpha tag (see Regulations and Best Practices)
• Traffic will be blocked to subscribers that have opted out via NCPR (see Regulations and Best Practices). However, brands now have the option to upload their subscribers consent on DLT Portals and enable sending Service explicit and Promotional messages to them.
• Handset Delivery Receipt is not supported for Promotional messages.

Consent Management

• Consent upload tab has been enabled on DLT portal across operators and Consent Scrubbing is live since 1st September 2021.
• Brands now have the option to upload the data or consent in asked format (Number and Date of consent). Please note - Valid Date of consent should be latest as of 6 months
• Consents are only applicable for Service Explicit and Promotional messages
• Proof against the consent uploaded can be asked by operator at any point of time if they receive complaints from the end user.
• Operators take approximately 15 days to process consent data uploaded
• If the enterprise choose to use this feature, its up to them to ensure their opt in data is kept up to date (within 6 months). The enterprise is expected to provide proof of opt in if there are complaints from end users. The operators will fine the enterprise, might block or disable the alpha tag/template if the provided proof of opt-in is not sufficient.

Message Capabilities

• Concatenated SMS: Supported
• GSM Standard Encoding: Supported
• GSM Extended Encoding: Not supported across all operators
• Unicode Encoding: Supported

2-Way SMS (Out/Inbound, MT/MO)

Sinch supports Mobile Originated SMS via Long Numbers in India.

Sinch offers 2-way SMS via extended Short Codes in India. The extended short code product is meant for all international companies needing 2-way communication with their Indian client base. The 2-way service falls under the ILDO category and is therefor NOT subject to the DLT registration requirements. Both transactional and promotional content is allowed. There is no curfew or time restrictions for sending SMS via this product.

Message Capabilities

• Concatenated SMS: Supported
• GSM Standard Encoding: Supported
• GSM Extended Encoding: Supported on all networks except BSNL
• Unicode Encoding: Supported

Number Portability

Mobile Number Portability launched 2011

Regulations and Best Practices

General Market regulations (international & domestic)

Operator Prefix Regulations

When terminating domestic A2P in India, you will notice that a prefix is added to the alpha tag of the SMS. This prefix signifies which network's SMSC has delivered the message to the handset; this complies with TRAI's regulations and guidelines.

The format of the sender address will deliver as follows: XY-ABCDEF

The first character of the prefix confirms the operator & the second character relates to which circle (network). For example:

Domestic A2P Regulations

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)/ Blockchain - June-2020

Operators worked with TRAI to introduce DLT/Blockchain into the market to reduce Unsolicited Consumer Communications (UCC). DLT is the name given to the new security system which will enforce regulatory compliance within the Indian market for domestic brands wishing to reach their client base through A2P SMS. Domestic brands must register their company within an operator portal, provide opt-in data and also register their own alpha tags, content templates and categorize them (transactional sms/promotional sms/ service (inferred consent)/service (explicit consent)

This means that domestic brands must register their own enterprise and then their own alpha tags within DLT. Messaging content should also be registered to ensure messages avoid screening and blocking by the operators.

To register with DLT, go here: DLT registration

Marketing information

• Time restriction for promotional messaging is between 10:00 AM - 21:00 PM local times (GMT + 05:30).
• During these times, all messages are stored and delivered the following day.

Domestic Promotional Number Ranges (6-character)

Opt-in/Opt-Out

There is a DND Registry in India called “National Customer Preference Register” (NCPR). Subscribers have the option to either opt out of ALL promotional SMS or just a few categories, such as to receive education related promotional SMS but block others. This registry is only applied on local traffic and does not affect the ILDO routes for international traffic.

To opt out of getting unsolicited commercial communications and to register your number and preferences with your service provider, go here: Preference Registration

Further regulations:

Unsolicited Consumer Communications (UCC) - New Regulation 2019 India uses the term "promotional SMS" in a way that makes it synonym to "unrequested content". Regulations from the Indian regulator, TRAI, ensures that Indian subscribers are protected from spam SMS. The new regulations called Unsolicited Consumer Communications, or UCC took effect on 25th March 2019

The purpose is to implement smarter filtering and traffic monitoring for those sending A2P SMS in India to block anyone deemed to be spamming.

Telemarketing license

A Telemarketing license is required by domestic companies directly connected with operators. Companies that don’t have an Indian entity, make use of connections called International Long Distance Operator connection (ILDO). Most operators as well as some domestic aggregators have an ILDO license, which allows reselling to foreign companies.

Qualification for local telemarketing license is that the sending server or application hosted in India and in some cases also that head quarters of entity is seated in India.

Elections & Political SMS

Any client wishing to send political SMS in India needs further documentation from various authorities in order to remain compliant with TRAI and governmental regulations.

These include the following sections:

Liability: Opt-in, content liability and penalties etc by the end entity who is undertaking the activity.

Content & Documentation: All political content must be pre-approved by the MCMC (Media Certification & Monitoring Committee) of the State Office of Election Commission. A certificate of approval from the MCMC is required when registering political SMS content. Messages must adhere to pre-approved content only. A self-declaration/affidavit on the approximate expenditure incurred by the campaign/advertisement must be provided by the person/political party.

References to the Prime Minister: A No Objection Certificate (NOC) is required from the PMO's office if there is any reference in the messaging content to the Prime Minister or his name (as per the Names and National Emblems Act, 1950).

Further information: A 48 hour silent window must be observed (as per section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951). When placing an order for political messaging campaigns, the details of the person/entity ordering should be retained at all levels; Authorization given to the entity, their verifiable contact details (name, address, contact number, email address) for traceability along with all levels of verifiable contact details (in case of multiple entities)

Banned Content

- Cryptocurrency

- Political Messages (unless registered)

- Drugs, cannabis & Vapes

- Adult content - including ads for sex work & prostitution

- Personal messaging

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