Domestic and International enterprise SMS business to India.

To follow the regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), domestic enterprises can only submit A2P SMS through domestic connections to end recipients after successful registration with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

DLT aims to create a cleaner and transparent system in the Indian telecom industry and curb Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) and an enhanced mobile subscriber policy. The new regulation can be accessed here.

Any enterprise that fails to pre-register Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will become non-compliant and will not be able to send A2P SMS to end recipients via domestic connections.

International Enterprises are not affected by this change.

Timeline for DLT Implementation

Phase 1 – Sender ID/Header Scrubbing

• Live since 1 June 2020.
• Only DLT-registered Sender IDs can terminate SMS on domestic routes.
• Entity Registration and Header Registration mandatory.

Phase 2 – PEID/Entity Unique ID Scrubbing

• Live since 19 November 2020.
• PE ID is mandatory to provide along with the Header for successful SMS termination.
• Entities have to start registering their Content and Consent Templates on the DLT Portal on which they have registered their entities.

Phase 3 – Template/Content Scrubbing

• Live since 1 April 2021.
• Only DLT-registered Templates, along with Sender ID and PEID able to terminate SMS on domestic routes.
• Similar to the Sender ID upload process, you need to upload these templates with any one operator DLT portal.
• Brand Name is mandatory to be included in the template registration content.

Phase 4 – Consent Upload in DLT

• Live since 15th July 2021.
• Need to register the Consent Templates with any of the approved DLT portals. After the consent templates are approved, they will get synced across the rest of the DLT Platforms.

DLT Requirements

• It is mandatory to have a brand name in all categories of messages.
• The exact text should match from your application to suppliers to the DLT Platform.
• Only Approved Templates should be submitted/uploaded to the Vonage.
• Header Mapping against each template should be verified.
  • Where header ‘X’ is mapped on the DLT platform with a ‘Y’ text, then it should be used accordingly.
  • If you wish to use any other header, changes on the DLT platform should be done accordingly.
• The variable length should not exceed 30 characters.
  • 30 characters per variable including the spaces and the content templates can be registered with variables in GSM (English) characters and in unicode (for local dialect characters).
  • If it is more than 30, you will need to add more variables.

Registering for DLT

To send any SMS through domestic connections, all enterprises must register their Principal Entity, Headers, Templates with the Brand Name, and provide consent on one of the approved DLT systems:

• Vodafone-Idea Ltd DLT Portal
• BSNL DLT Portal
• Airtel DLT Portal
• Reliance JIO DLT Portal

Maintaining Compliance While Submitting Messages to the MobonAir Platform

After you have registered for DLT with one of the portals, there are two ways to ensure your traffic is compliant with DLT.

Vonage is not responsible for domestic entities registering for DLT. We do not verify if domestic entities have correctly provided their PEID, Sender ID, and Template IDs.

If a message errors due to these fields not being provided or valid, the carrier does this will be reflected in the Delivery Receipt webhook and SMPP DLR.

You can read a tutorial by our Developer Relations team discussing DLT and how to implement it.

Option 1: Submit Required DLT Parameters with Every Request

1. Make the necessary changes on your end so that your Entity ID, Sender ID, Header and Templates (as registered with DLT) are sent with every API submission (see additional properties you must use below).
2. Inform MobonAir to enable routing for Option 1 for your Sender ID.
3. Start sending SMS after you have received confirmation routing has been enabled for you.

Option 2: Let MobonAir Detect Your Template

1. Create your DLT Details csv file.
   • Download the template file from your DLT Portal.
   • Add your details to this file.
   • Save as <entity id>.csv where <entity id> is your Entity ID.
2. Register for DLT with MobonAir by calling on 9454111011 the following:
   • Your PEID – Entity unique ID received from DLT after entity registration approved.
   • Entity Name – Company name registered on DLT.
   • Sender Name – Six character alphanumeric Sender/Header, which has been registered and approved in DLT.
   • The name of which DLT system you are registered on.
   • Your DLT details file (mentioned above).

SMS Types

By default, customers will fall into the International promotional(SMS without opt in) category with restrictions as mentioned below.

If you are an Int’l customer or have different SMS type other than as listed below, please contact your account manager on 9454111011

Is Sending bulk SMS illegal ?

No matter whichever industry you are into you must comply with the guidelines before sending bulk SMS. The primary rule to remember is that you can only send marketing messages to recipients who have opted-in to receive these messages