How do I register for India DLT (headers and templates)?

How to register for India DLT: headers and templates

Short answer

To send business SMS in India, you register once as a Principal Entity on an operator's DLT platform, then register your sender headers and every consent and content template, and bind the telemarketers that carry your traffic. TRAI's TCCCPR rules require this, and messages that do not match a registered header, template and chain are blocked during scrubbing.

What is India DLT and who needs it?

DLT (distributed ledger technology) is the blockchain-based registry that Indian telecom operators run under TRAI's Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018. Every business that sends commercial SMS to Indian numbers, including OTPs and alerts, must be registered on it. The regulator is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI); the platforms are run by the operators Jio, Airtel, Vi (Vodafone Idea) and BSNL.

You register once. Vi's DLT FAQ states that a Principal Entity registers with any one operator and receives an entity ID that is valid across all Indian operators.

What do you register on DLT?

Item	What it is	Points to check
Principal Entity (PE)	Your legal entity, the sender of the messages	One registration per legal entity; group companies register each entity separately
Header	The sender ID recipients see	Tied to your business and category. Operators currently issue 6 characters (letters for transactional and service, digits for promotional), although TRAI's definition allows up to 11; the network adds -P, -S, -T or -G for promotional, service, transactional or government messages
Consent template	The wording used to collect explicit consent	Linked to one header; Vi notes that consent templates are registered in English
Content template	The exact message text, with variables for the parts that change	Each variable is pre-tagged for its purpose, a template may not be linked to more than one header, and a template allowed more than three variables must keep at least 30% of its characters fixed
Telemarketer chain	The registered telemarketers that carry your traffic to the operator	Declared and bound on DLT; since 11 December 2024 SMS on undeclared paths is rejected

How does the registration process work?

Sign up as an enterprise (Principal Entity) on one operator's DLT platform, with your business PAN, authorised person details and business proof, and pay the portal's registration fee.
Wait for the entity registrar to verify your details. Vi's FAQ gives 72 hours from receipt of the fee as the target, and missing documents restart the clock.
Register your headers, choosing the category for each: promotional, transactional, service implicit (inferred consent) or service explicit (explicit consent).
Register consent templates for any service-explicit or promotional traffic that relies on consent.
Register each content template with its type, category, linked header and tagged variables. Include your brand name, and whitelist any URLs, app links or call-back numbers the messages contain.
Add your telemarketer (for example your messaging provider) and authorise it with a letter of authorisation, then declare the delivery chain.
Send a test message for each template before launch and check that it is delivered on every operator.

What documents do you typically need?

Requirements are set by each DLT portal and can change, so check the current list on the portal you register with. Commonly requested items include:

Business PAN and proof of the business, such as a GST certificate or incorporation document.
Name, mobile number, email and identity proof of the authorised person.
A letter of authorisation on company letterhead naming your telemarketer.
For government or SEBI-registered entities, the extra documents the portal lists, such as a SEBI registration certificate.

How long does it take and what does it cost?

Entity verification is designed to take a few working days, and headers and templates are reviewed separately, so plan for more than a week end to end. BroadNet's typical lead time for India DLT header registration is 3 to 7 business days once the entity is active. That is a guide rather than a promise: rejected templates and incomplete documents add time.

Each operator portal sets its own registration fees, which are paid on the portal. Check the current amount there before you apply. Registration through OmniChannels.ai passes any portal fee through at cost.

What rules apply when you send?

Every message is scrubbed against the registered header, template, consents and recipient preferences before delivery. A message that does not match is blocked.
Promotional messages reach only recipients who have not blocked that category or who gave explicit digital consent, and must carry an opt-out mechanism. Service messages to your own customers need no explicit consent; service messages that rely on consent need the recipient's explicit consent.
Under TCCCPR the default time band for promotional messages is 10:00 to 21:00 IST.
Links, APKs, OTT links and call-back numbers must be whitelisted before they can be used in templates.
TRAI's rules have operators temporarily deactivate headers unused for 90 days and reactivate them on request; Vi's FAQ says inactive headers go back to the header pool. Keep low-volume headers active.
TRAI keeps tightening these rules, so confirm the current requirements on the DLT portal before each new campaign type.

How OmniChannels.ai helps

Our team prepares and files your India DLT registration with you: entity sign-up, headers, consent and content templates, and the telemarketer chain for your traffic. We also check templates against the variable and whitelisting rules before submission. Approval decisions stay with the operators' DLT registrars.