DLT Guidelines

Distributed Ledger Technology(Dlt) Is A Blockchain-based Registration System. This System Keeps Track Of All The Records Of Promotional & Transitional Messages Sent By The Senders Where All The Telemarketers And Entities/Enterprises Have To Be Registered With Operators And All The Customers And Retailers Are Connected To The Operators Through Telemarketers. Header Guidelines On DLT As Per New Guidelines From TRAI, Every Individual/Enterprise Has To Register On Dlt Platform If They Want To Use Bulk Sms/Voice Services then every header needs to be approved and registered with the Telecom Operators. Has Made Dlt Mandatory For Everyone From 1 June 2020. It Means For All Your Senders/Headers & Sms Templates You Need To Register As An Entity To The Dlt Blockchain Platform.
If Senders Are Not Active On Dlt Platform Message Will Not Be Delivered. Here, we explain the different type of Headers with examples

PROMOTIONAL:

Headers that can be used for sending Promotional messages fall under PROMOTIONAL type. Promotional message means commercial communication that can be sent to a mobile subscriber whose preferences are not set (not on DND). Or, any commercial communication that an enterprise can send to an intended recipient after taking consent to send such messages.
Header (6 numeric): 565690, 787878, 987123, 555555, etc.

Promotional Headers should start with the number that matches with the category (as per DND Preferences).

  • 1. Banking/Insurance/Financial products/ credit cards.
    Ex: 123890, 154987
  • 2.Real Estate
    Ex: 234567, 264789
  • 3. Education
    Ex: 397134, 321456
  • 4. Health
    Ex: 467931, 444654
  • 5. Consumer goods and automobiles
    Ex: 582974, 564123
  • 6. Communication/Broadcasting / Entertainment/IT
    Ex: 631469, 693147
  • 7. Tourism and Leisure
    Ex: 789456, 714369
  • 8. Food and Beverages
    Ex: 896321, 816934
  • 0 (Zero) Others – Category that doesn’t appear in 1-8
    Ex: 012389, 098654

OTHER

Headers that can be used for sending Transactional, Service Implicit and Service Explicit messages fall under OTHER types. The same Header can be used against all three types of messages. All These Headers are Case Sensitive.

1.Header (6-alpha): TRUBLQ, TRUblq, TRubLQ, trublq, KLMNOP, DLTdlt, etc.

Transactional: Message which contains One Time Password (OTP) and requires to complete a banking transaction initiated by the bank customer. This is applicable to all banks including national/ scheduled/ private/ Govt. and MNC banks. Ex: TRHDFC, DCBmsg, MkotaK

2.Service Implicit: Messages arising out of customer’s actions or his relationship with the Sender, that is not promotional, and is not in the interest of the customer to block such communications. These messages may or may not be triggered by a subscriber-initiated transaction and will not be blocked for subscribers who have otherwise blocked service messages also.

  • Confirmation messages of net banking or a credit/debit transaction.
  • Product purchase confirmation.
  • Delivery status of a parcel.
  • OTP required for e-commerce websites, app login, social media apps, KYC, etc.
  • Messages from schools regarding attendance/transport.
  • Messages from hospitals/clinics regarding appointment/discharge reports.
  • Govt./TRAI/DoT mandated messages, advisories, messages from state Govt., LEAs, local authorities, traffic advisories, election commission, disaster management advisories.
  • Service messages from car workshops, gadget service centers.
  • Day-end/ month-end settlement alerts to securities/Demat account holders. Ex: ABCDE, AFioma, uniFco.

service Explicit: Any service message which doesn’t fall under the category of service message (Implicit) will be sent only against service explicit, digitally verified/verifiable consent that has been taken from the subscriber by the respective enterprise. Ex: NUTUKI, PRizem, semRTA

OTHER – GovtOnly Govt. entities can register these Headers that can be used for sending Transactional, Service Implicit and Service Explicit messages. Header (3 to 9 numeric and should start with 1): 1444, 19898, 15555, 19090909, etc.

TRAI Regulations

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed telecom operators to re-activate SMS checking filters beginning April 1 and block traffic that does not comply with the regulatory standards. The TRAI in a letter to the telemarketers as seen by ET wrote, “As sufficient opportunity has been given to the principal entities to comply with the regulatory requirements, the consumers cannot be deprived of the benefits of the regulatory provisions. Accordingly, it has been decided that from April 1, 2021, any message failing in the scrubbing due to non-compliance of regulatory requirements will be rejected.”

  • TRAI has issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 ("TCCCPR, 2018) on 19th July, 2018, to curb the menace of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), which put in place a framework for controlling UCC. The regulations entirely came into force w.e.f. 28.02.2019. Since, then TRAI has been through, Telecom Service Providers (TSP), communicating with the Principal Entities to fulfill the regulatory requirements.
  • As per the provisions of the regulation and Code(s) of Practices published by the Access Providers, senders (OTP, Transactional messages, Service messages or commercial messages) are required to fulfil regulatory requirements for sending bulk communication. The regulatory provisions not only help in preventing spam but also help in preventing fraudulent messages purporting to originate from banks, financial institutions, or other trusted sources. It also helps the Principal Entities to enhance it reach by registering the consent of the customers.
  • In compliance of provisions of the regulations, when SMS scrubbing was activated by the Access Providers w.e.f. 8th March, 2021, some failure of A2P SMS traffic was observed. It was observed that some of the principal entities have not fulfilled the requirements as envisaged TCCCPR, 2018, even after two years, despite being fully aware of the regulations and the consequences. In order toprotect the interest of consumers, TRAI had to request TSPs to temporarily suspend the scrubbing of SMS for seven days to enable the principal entities to register the template of SMS so that no inconvenience is faced by the customers.
  • Thereafter, since 17th March 2021, Access Providers has activated the content template scrubbing. However, to avoid inconvenience to the public, trafic is being allowed to pass for the time being, even if, it is not fulfilling the regulatory requirements. Major reasons observed for not meeting the regulatory compliance are content template not registered, content Id missing, mismatch in template registered and message sent etc. Unfortunately, despite of repeated communication, all major banks and big telemarketers sending SMS have failed to fulfill regulatory requirements. All are being notified individually also. TRAI has called for further reports from TSPs.
  • TRAI hereby, once again requests all the Entities who are using the telecom resources to send bulk messages to the consumers, to fulfill the regulatory requirements immediately so that there would not be any disruption in the communication to the customers.
  • In case of any clarification, Shri Asit Kadayan, Advisor (Quality of Services) may be contacted at 011-23230404 or email advqos@trai.gov.in.