SMS Regulation in India

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Prerequisites

Ensure that all compliances are in place before you send an SMS.

TRAI Regulations

SMS Marketing in India is governed by the rules and regulations set forth by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). These rules are only applicable if the vendors use the domestic messaging pipeline to send messages to subscribers in India. Routes for international communications are unaffected.

TRAI mandated following prerequisites to be able to send SMS marketing campaigns in India. They are as follows:

  1. Registration of all of the company's entities, SMS Headers, and promotional consent in a centralised DLT portal.
  2. Restriction on when to send the messages. The marketer is prohibited to send promotional SMS during the DND hours (which is defined at 21:00 hrs to 10:00 hrs). Only urgent transactional SMS, such as OTPs, can be sent during DND hours.
  3. All the message templates must be preapproved and whitelisted in the DLT portals.

Marketing related SMS campaigns are divided into four subtypes:

PromotionalTransactionalService ImplicitService Explicit
Used to send promotional messages to the recipients regardless of their preferences.Only used by Banks to send alerts and transactional OTPs.Used to send OTPs, order and booking alerts including shipping and delivery to registered customers.Used to inform existing customers of offers, updates, and discount to the products.
They are delivered to recipients once their consent scrubbing and preference is checked.They are delivered to all recipients, regardless of their consent.They are delivered to all recipients, regardless of their consent.They are only deilvered to customers who have provided explicit consent to receive SMS.
Sent between 10:00 hrs and 21:00 hrsYou can send them any time of the day with no DND restrictions.You can send them any time of the day with no DND restrictions.You can send them any time of the day with no DND restrictions.
Delivered via six digit numeric Header approved for promotion on DLT platforms.Delivered via six digit alphabetic Header corresponding to Bank's credentials.Delivered via six digit alphabetic Header approved for Service messages on DLT platformsDelivered via six digit alphabetic Header approved for Service messages on DLT platforms

Managing Consent Preferences

TRAI's new regulations put the control of marketing SMS in the hands of customers, in addition to existing DND regulations. Some of them are as follows:

  1. Full control over Opt-Out feature regarding receiving SMS from one brand.
  2. Custom self-consent for customer for Opt-in to promotional messages from a brand regardless of their status in national DND list.
  3. Specifying a window to receive promotional messages during the day.

Updated 5 months ago