MobileConnect Guide for Sending SMS Messages to India

General Guidelines and Deliverability

India is the second largest mobile market in the world. Messaging growth continues to accelerate as rural areas in India get mobile coverage for the first time. Approximately 60% of the population uses feature (non-smart) phones.

Supported Codes

Note

The provisioning times listed in this table are estimates based on historical trends. The mobile carriers don't provide firm lead times, so the actual time required to obtain your phone numbers can differ from these estimates. Holidays, increased demand, and carrier network freeze periods (which vary by country and carrier) can cause delays.

Domestic Versus International SMS

There are currently two application-to-person (A2P) SMS services or routes into India: one for international enterprises sent via the International Long Distance Operator (ILDO) route and one for local business, which requires DLT registration.

SMS Code Provisioning Guidelines

There are two ways to send SMS messages to recipients in India: local routes and ILDO routes.

• ILDO routes: Organizations that are based outside of India must use ILDO routes. You don’t have to complete any registration steps to use ILDO routes, which reduce the amount of time required to start sending your messages. Messages that you send using ILDO routes are delivered using random short codes.

• Local routes: Enterprises based in India can send SMS messages using preregistered sender IDs or Headers. These can contain six characters or 6 digit senders. In order to send with the Header, you must register it via the VIL Power DLT portal. This requirement is mandated by the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). After you complete the DLT registration process, contact your Salesforce account executive to enable your Marketing Cloud Engagement instance to send messages using your registered sender ID.

  If you’re eligible to send using local routes, you must first complete the steps on this page to register your SMS programs.

Local route registration step 1: Obtain a Principal Entity ID

• Enterprise Portal Registration: Salesforce customers must first register their local enterprise credentials on one of these carrier portals.

  • Vodafone
  • Airtel
  • BSNL
  • Jio
  • MTNL
  • Airtel/Videocon

  We recommend that you use the Vodafone portal because you’re required to activate an account on this portal later in the registration process. The application process takes about 20 minutes to complete, and there’s a one-time setup fee.

  During the registration process, you’re asked to provide some or all of these documents, depending on your industry:

  • Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card.
  • Goods & Services Tax (GST) Certificate.
  • Certificate of Incorporation.
  • Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) Certificate.
  • Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) License Import/Export Registration Certificate.

  When you’ve provided all of the required documentation, your application is processed. Applications are typically approved within 72 hours. When your account is approved, you receive a Principal Entity ID.

Local route registration step 2: Register your sender IDs and message templates

After you receive your Principal Entity ID, you can log into the carrier portal as an Enterprise user and register your sender IDs (sometimes referred to as "headers") and message templates. You can also upload consent templates if you plan to send marketing messages.

When you register sender IDs, you can specify either six numbers or six letters. When you register IDs that contain letters, the name that you specify must be relevant to your brand, and you can't use generic IDs such as "URGENT". Alphabetic sender IDs can’t contain special characters, such as @, %, or &.

Sender IDs that you use to send promotional messages must contain six digits. The first number must indicate the nature of your business:

• For banking, insurance, financial services, credit cards: sender IDs must begin with 1.
• For real estate: 2
• For education: 3
• For health: 4
• For consumer goods and automobiles: 5
• For communication, broadcasting, entertainment, information technology: 6
• For tourism and leisure: 7
• For food and beverage: 8
• For all other categories: 0

Your organization can register as many sender IDs as you need, but each one must be unique. New sender ID registrations are typically approved within 2-3 days. Approved sender IDs don’t expire as long as they remain in active use. Sender IDs that aren’t actively used for more than 90 days are deactivated and made available to other senders.

Local route registration step 3: Register consent messages

If you plan to send marketing messages, you must upload the messages that you use to obtain consent. Consent templates must be explicit and unambiguous. These templates are mapped to actual subscriber data that is uploaded to the Consent Subscriber Management Portal. After your consent templates are approved, you can link them to approved content templates in the promotional or service -explicit categories. There’s no limitation on the number of consent templates you can create. Some examples of valid consent templates include:

• ABC Ltd would like to send marketing communication on all relevant product and service offers and events to all registered customers.
• ABC Ltd needs your consent to send you messages about your account activity and our best offers.
• ABC Ltd wishes to send all registered customers updates and recommendations of our services or products.

Local route registration step 4: Register content templates

You must register all of the message templates that you plan to use. You can’t send messages over local routes until your content templates are registered and approved. The messages that you send must exactly match an approved content template. Your templates can include variables, which you can specify when registering your templates by using placeholder text: {#var#}. Each variable can contain up to 30 characters.

When registering content templates, you must choose the correct message category. The choices are:

• Transactional: Used by banking and financial service organizations only. These messages contain one-time passwords (OTPs) and are used to complete a banking transaction initiated by the bank customer. Messages aren’t blocked for numbers registered on the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR), and these messages can be sent at any time of day. Sender IDs associated with transactional messages use six letters, such as TRHDFC, DCBmsg, or MkotaK.
• Service-implicit: These types of messages are sent when a customer takes a particular action, such as making a purchase. These messages aren’t promotional, and it isn’t in the interest of the customer to block such communications. These messages can be used to send delivery status updates, travel confirmations, appointment reminders, or one-time passwords. Messages aren’t blocked for numbers registered on the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR), and there are no time restrictions for sending service-implicit messages. Sender IDs associated with service-implicit messages use six letters, such as GDPGIN, GDPmsg, or GdpgI.
• Service-explicit: These messages include any service message that doesn’t fall under the category of service-implicit and where the subscriber has given the sender digitally verifiable consent. Service-explicit messages are considered marketing communications that can be sent only during local business hours (10 AM–9 PM, Indian Standard Time). If you send this type of message outside of local business hours, your message is stored and delivered the following day. Messages sent to numbers registered on the NCPR are blocked. Sender IDs associated with service-explicit messages use six letters.
• Promotional: Promotional messages are messages that are intended to promote or sell products or services. You can only send this type of message to recipients who have provided explicit, digitally verifiable consent. These messages can be sent only during local business hours (10 AM–9 PM, Indian Standard Time). Promotional messages that are sent outside of local business hours are stored and delivered the following day. Messages sent to numbers registered on the NCPR are blocked. Sender IDs associated with promotional messages use six digits. Headers from other categories can’t be linked to promotional templates.

Local route registration step 5: Create an account on the Vodafone VIL Power DLT portal

If you used a different portal to register your sender IDs and templates, you must create an account on the Vodafone DLT Portal. If you completed the registration steps on the Vodafone portal, proceed to the next step.

During the registration process, you’re asked to provide a telemarketer ID. Add Telemarketer ID 1102502720000073897 for Sinch Cloud Communication Services India Private Limited. Enterprises will be allowed to add multiple Telemarketers to their accounts, so existing ones will not be impacted and can continue to service those clients.

Submit Entity-Telemarketer (TM) Chain Binding Request. Enterprises registered on DLT have to disclose the entire SMS transmission chain for their India traffic. In DLT, click the Chains tab and select the +new chain. In the dropdown menu, search for Sinch, select 1102502720000073897 Sinch Cloud Communication Services India Private Limited, and submit for approval.

Local route registration step 6: Share your registration details with Salesforce

When you’ve completed all of the registration steps, contact your Salesforce account manager or customer success manager. Provide them with these details:

• Your company name, exactly as it’s registered on the DLT portal.
• The Principal Entity ID that you received in step 1.
• Screenshots that show that your message templates are approved.
• Screenshots that show that you’ve activated an account on the Vodafone portal and registered the appropriate Telemarketer ID.
• Screenshots that show you have complete PE-™ Chain Binding Status

After you provide this information, Salesforce configures your account to send messages using your registered sender IDs. When you receive a confirmation that your account has been configured, you’re ready to start sending messages. We recommend that you send test messages to make sure that your account is configured correctly.

Note

After the initial configuration, you can add new sender IDs and message templates in the DLT portal without notifying us. If you want to start your campaigns immediately after DLT portal approval, use Salesforce DLT Template support feature. For more information, see DLT Template Settings for SMS messages in India. Alternatively, you can wait for one business day before testing the newly registered content to avoid message failures.

Successful Sending and Best Practices

Carriers perform strict filtering on all SMS messages sent using local routes. As a result of this filtering, there are several factors that can cause delivery of your messages to fail, including:

• Sending a message using a sender ID that isn’t registered and approved.
• Sending a message using a message template that is associated with a different type of message. For example, you can’t send marketing messages using a sender ID that’s only approved for sending transactional messages.

• Sending a message that doesn’t exactly match a registered template. Adding or removing characters (including spaces, full stops, or commas) can cause messages to fail. When you send messages using Engagement, make sure that your messages match your registered templates exactly.

  

  Note You can register message templates that contain variables. Using variables is useful for displaying the recipient's name, a one-time password, and several other types of content. Each variable can contain up to 30 characters.

Always send test messages before you deploy your messaging campaigns to a large audience.

Marketing SMS Delivery Reports

When you send marketing messages using local routes, they count as delivered when they successfully reach the carrier network. However, these delivery receipts don’t mean that the message was successfully delivered to the recipient's device. This limitation is an intentional feature of the DLT system. If you send marketing messages and receive successful delivery receipts, but your recipients don’t receive messages on their devices, it usually indicates a problem with the mobile carrier's network. These problems can be temporary or permanent. We’re limited in our ability to troubleshoot in these situations.

Transactional messages that you send using local routes have better reporting and downstream support. When you send transactional messages using local routes, you receive delivery receipts when the message is delivered to the recipient's device.

DLT and Regulatory Compliance

The DLT registration framework was designed to reduce spam and fraud. As a sender, you must ensure that your promotional programs comply with TRAI regulations.

• You must collect explicit consent to send marketing messages. The recipient can provide their consent via SMS, a website, or a mobile app.
• Consent to receive marketing messages is valid for six months from the opt-in event. After six months, you must obtain consent again.
• Having a current business relationship with a recipient doesn’t authorize you to send marketing messages. You must have separate and explicit consent to send marketing messages.
• You must provide cost-free options to opt out, such as a URL or toll-free support number.
• You must explicitly convey the terms of the marketing campaign to the user before they opt in.
• You must maintain records of opt-in requests. The carriers perform investigations when they receive spam complaints from recipients. During these investigations, you’re responsible for providing evidence that the recipient opted in.

Important To prevent message failures, you must add all email addresses, mobile numbers, and URLs to the allowlist on the DLT portal.

Subscriber Consent Management

Enterprises sending promotional and service-explicit messages can bypass DND scrubbing as long as an end user has explicitly consented to receive marketing communications. The consent upload tab is enabled on all DLT portals. By uploading consent data (number and opt-in date), an enterprise ensures opted-in subscribers aren’t blocked due to their registration on the NCPR. As long as the date of consent doesn’t exceed 6 months, they can benefit from a bigger audience. On the six-month anniversary of consent, the enterprise must renew consent with the subscriber or they’re blocked. The carriers can request proof of consent at any time, so you must have a system in place for digitally verifying consent with little notice. Paper or physical consent forms aren’t accepted. Failure to provide sufficient proof of consent can lead to service suspension and financial penalties. Carriers take approximately 15 days to process consent data uploaded to the DLT portal.

Operator Prefix & Suffix

When you send SMS messages over local routes, a three-character prefix and a two-character suffix is appended to your sender ID. This prefix is required in order to comply with TRAI regulations. The prefix contains two letters followed by a hyphen (for example, "VM-"). The first letter indicates the carrier that delivered the message, and the second letter indicates the regional gateway that the message passed through. In the previous example ("VM-"), the V stands for Vodafone, and the M stands for the Mumbai regional gateway.

The Suffix designates the message type.

Restricted Content

Messages that contain this content are forbidden:

• Adult or sexual content.
• Political content.
• Gambling content.
• Religious content.

Best Practice and Compliance Reference

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
• DLT FAQ
• DLT Portal User Manuals
• Cellular Operators Association of India
• India Department of Telecommunications