Legal Requirements for SMS in India

Mobile country code (MCC)

• 405, 404

International dialing prefix:

• 91

Major carriers:

• Airtel
• Vodafone India
• Idea Cellular
• Reliance Jio
• BSNL
• Aircel
• Reliance Communication

CLiX supported:

• Long Code - Yes
• Short Code - No
• Sender ID - 6 Character Alpha. Preregistration is required.

One-way communication - Yes

Two-way communication - Yes (long code needs to be included in message content as the Sender ID will be an Alpha Sender ID).

Opt-in requirements:

• Subscribers must opt-in to receive messages.
• Opt-in is valid for only 6 months and then needs to be opted in again.

Opt out requirements:

• STOP keyword must be included for customers to opt-out of receiving messages.

Message content:

• Sender IDs for international numbers will be replaced with XX-NNNNNN (2 letters followed by 6 numbers).
• Sender IDs can only be registered for transactional messages, not for promotional messages.
• More than 6 messages with the same Sender ID or content sent to the same number within an hour may be blocked.
• Users may not be able to receive more than a total of 200 SMS messages per day across all incoming streams.
• Messages towards Jammu or Kashmir networks (example, 405/55) will be blocked by the government due to political sensitivity.
• Marketing messages sent between 9:00 pm and 9:00 am India time are not allowed and may be blocked. To bypass this, you can register a 6 character Sender ID.

Message format supported:

• Unicode - Yes
• Concatenated messages - Yes

Delivery receipts (DLR) supported - Yes

Useful regulatory links:

• Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) - www.trai.gov.in