Being the second-most populous country in the world with 1.3 billion populations, it has opened the doors of many business opportunities, and for any business entity communication over SMS is playing a critical role from a marketing & operational perspective as the population is high so as potential customer base too. Today every person is having mobile phones with them, and this also leads to making SMS a preferential strategy of marketing and an effective channel of communication. No matter which industry you are operating in, SMS can definitely help you to reach your existing as well as future customers base.
But having said that, SMSes are also bound to certain rules and regulations else they can be misused or can turn out to be a disaster for business as well as for users too. In India, there are several legal & operational restrictions are placed in Bulk Messaging like NDNC (National Do Not Call), SMS Volume, fixed time window, etc. It is always better to know all these regulations and restrictions so that you or your business remains compliant with them and face no legal issues.
MOBtexting is a Telephony Communication Solutions provider helping here to understand the same in detail. Let’s first understand the type or categories of SMS, which can be terminated or sent in India from the business perspective.
Categories of A2P Messaging
Promotional SMS:
As the name suggests, it is basically used by organizations to send promotional messages under marketing campaigns’ or advertisements’.
Transactional SMS:
Purely confidential messages such as OTP (One-time password) codes, 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication), account validations, bank notifications, transactions confirmation or alerts, etc. where it involves some or other way of authentication by the registered or intended user.
International SMS:
These are those messages which basically originate from outside India but get terminated in India i.e. OTT (Over the top) traffic such as iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Gmail, Hotmail, Hangouts, WhatsApp, etc.
Basis the business type you can opt for the respective category of A2P Messaging that suits your business needs. But before getting into the business please refer to the detailed regulations and restrictions which are associated with each SMS type, as explained below
1. Promotional SMS
DND (Do Not Call) Registry
In India, it’s not necessary that you can send a message to every user who is listed on your list because users or customers in India are given an option to register themselves under DND services where once they register, they’ll not receive any promotional SMS. Each user can register for this service with their telecom service provider.
Specific Time Window
In India, the time window from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM is defined to send promotional messages. Before and after, no messages can be sent, so be sure to make a request in advance for sending promotional messages for your business through Bulk SMS providers.
Following The Specific Format For Phone Number:
In India, if you are using promotional SMS services for your business then your message will be sent using a specific short number coding format like “YY-ZZZZZZ” where the first two letters of the code define the provider and area. With this sender ID format, no recipient can reply back to the sent message. In promotional messaging, it is always one-way messaging in India.
Limitations on Number Of Messages:
To avoid SMS spamming or flooding, there needs to be a gap of 20 minutes for every same promotional message i.e. same text body from the same sender to the same receiver. If you need to send messages more frequently, then it is better to get two different numbers with different shortcodes.
2. Transactional Messages:
We have already defined what exactly transactional messages are but apart from that it also needs to fulfil the following two requirements:
1. It is required that transactional messages should be sent from pre-registered sender id, which needs to be in alphabetic format.
2. Since March 2019 in India, all transactional messages are required to use a pre-registered white-listed message template that you’ll be giving to your service provider. If you violate this rule, then you may face legal challenges’ or penalties’, blocking off the registered sender id by the service provider and fine from the telecom carrier.
Transactional SMS messages do no imposed by the limitations of promotional messages such as DND database bypass and it can be sent any time of the day.
For pre-registering the alphabetic sender id, you can directly send the request to your service provider with following details:
- Name of your company
- Company registered address
- Your website
- Your email-id
- Headquarter details i.e. whether in India or outside India,
- SMS white-list template format
- Project details or use-case description i.e. for what purpose you need it that will be viewed by the carrier for approval.
- Once you have all this data in your hand, contact and submit the same to your service provider.
3. International Messages
We have already explained the concept of International messages or OTT (over-the-top) messages i.e. what exactly they are. Now let’s see little more on them, any OTT message which is originating from outside India must only come from those mobile operators or carriers who hold the capability of International Long Distance connections. They can be terminated with long format numbers or simply in shortcodes but can’t be standard messages like promotional or transactional. In India, sending the OTT messages from non-authorized connections are bound for blocking.
Here, we have tried to cover each and every detail that is necessary to know with respect to the messaging concept. Always ensure to do business with authorized and legal service providers as well as mobile operators to ensure business success while maintaining your market credibility.
If you are looking out for any of such solutions related to SMS messaging, please visit us @MOBtexting or Call Us @ 9019-120-120.
