DLT Registration in India — Entity, Header & Template Approval
Every business that sends commercial SMS in India must be registered on a DLT platform. We complete your entity, header and template registration for you — free with any Guru SMS plan.
DLT registration is the mandatory process that lets your business send commercial SMS in India. Under TRAI's TCCCPR 2018 regulations, you must register your organisation as a Principal Entity on a telecom operator's DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) platform, then register the sender ID you send from and every message template you use. Without it, your SMS will simply not be delivered. The process is free to start but genuinely fiddly — most first-time applications are rejected on a technicality. Guru SMS handles the entire registration for our customers at no charge, and this page explains exactly how it works.
What DLT registration actually is
DLT stands for Distributed Ledger Technology. After years of spam complaints, TRAI required every telecom operator to run a shared, blockchain-backed registry of who is allowed to send commercial SMS, what they may send it from, and what the message may say. Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL each operate a DLT portal, and the records are synced between them.
The practical effect is that nothing can be sent anonymously. A message is delivered only when three things are registered and linked: your business (the Principal Entity), your 6-character sender ID (the header), and the exact wording of the message (the content template). If any of the three is missing or mismatched, the operator blocks the SMS before it reaches the handset.
This applies to every commercial sender — a bank sending OTPs, a school sending fee reminders, a shop sending an offer. It does not apply to ordinary person-to-person texting from your own phone.
DLT registration in five steps
Register your business as a Principal Entity
Create an account on any one operator's DLT portal and submit your business details with proof documents. Because the ledger is shared, an entity approved on one portal is recognised by the other operators, so you register once rather than four times. On approval you receive a Principal Entity ID (PE ID) — a long numeric code that identifies your organisation across the network.
Register your header (sender ID)
A header is the 6-character ID recipients see instead of a phone number, such as GURUSM. Request it against your approved entity and pick a category — headers for promotional traffic are kept separate from headers for service and transactional traffic. Your header must plausibly relate to your registered brand name; generic or misleading headers are refused.
Register your content templates
Submit the exact wording of every message you intend to send. Anything that changes per recipient — a name, an amount, an OTP, a date — is marked as a variable using the {#var#} placeholder. The template you register must match the message you actually send character for character, so register the real text rather than an approximation.
Pick the right template category
Each template is filed as Transactional, Service Implicit, Service Explicit or Promotional. The category decides whether the message is checked against the DND registry and who you may legally send it to, so choosing it correctly matters more than any other single decision in the process.
Link everything to your SMS provider and go live
Map your approved entity, header and templates to your messaging account. Once Guru SMS links your PE ID and template IDs on our gateway, your campaigns and API calls start delivering. From here, any new message wording needs a new template first — but headers and entity stay as they are.
The operator DLT portals
Each operator runs its own portal, but the ledger is shared — you register your entity once and it is recognised across the network.
Jio TrueConnect
Reliance Jio
Jio's DLT portal, and one of the most commonly used entry points for new entity registration in India.
Airtel DLT
Bharti Airtel
Airtel's commercial communication portal for entity, header and template registration.
Vi DLT (VIL Power)
Vodafone Idea
Vodafone Idea's DLT platform, widely used by entities registering their first header.
BSNL DLT
BSNL / MTNL
The state operator's DLT portal, covering BSNL and MTNL subscriber traffic.
The rules behind all of this come from TRAI's TCCCPR 2018 regulations — read them on trai.gov.in.
Documents you will need
Business identity proof
PAN of the business, plus your GST certificate, Certificate of Incorporation, shop & establishment licence or equivalent registration proof depending on how you are constituted.
Authorised signatory details
PAN and Aadhaar or another government ID of the person authorised to register on the company's behalf, along with a Letter of Authorisation on your letterhead.
Contact and address proof
A working business email and mobile number for OTP verification, and proof of the registered address that matches your other documents.
Brand evidence for your header
Something that ties the 6-character header to your brand — a trademark certificate, website, or the brand name as it appears on your registration documents.
Choosing the right category
The category decides who you may message and whether the SMS is checked against the DND registry. Getting it wrong is the fastest route to a rejected template.
Transactional
Reserved for OTPs and alerts sent by banks and other regulated financial institutions. Delivered regardless of DND status because the message is essential to a transaction the customer initiated.
Service Implicit
Messages arising from an existing customer relationship that the customer would reasonably expect — order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders, fee receipts. No separate marketing consent needed, but it must not carry a promotional pitch.
Service Explicit
Messages sent to customers who gave you specific, recorded consent to receive that type of message. Consent must be verifiable, because this category can carry content that would otherwise be treated as marketing.
Promotional
Marketing and offers to prospects. Scrubbed against the DND registry, so it reaches only numbers that have not opted out of that category, and is typically permitted within operator-defined hours.
Not sure which is which? Our messaging glossary defines every term, and our bulk SMS service maps your templates to the right category for you.
Why DLT templates get rejected
Nearly every "DLT is slow" complaint traces back to one of these. Fix them up front and approval is usually quick.
The template does not match the message
The single most common rejection. An extra space, a changed full stop, a different greeting or a line break that is not in the registered template is enough for the operator to block the send. Register the exact production text.
Variables used to carry the message
Variables are for values, not sentences. A template that is mostly {#var#} — an attempt to register one flexible template for everything — will be refused, because it defeats the purpose of registering content at all.
Wrong category for the content
Filing a discount offer as Service Implicit is the classic error. Promotional intent in a service template gets the template rejected, and repeated attempts put your entity under scrutiny.
The header does not match the brand
A header unrelated to your registered business name, or one that could impersonate another brand, is refused. Keep it recognisably yours.
Unregistered links and numbers
URLs, short links and callback numbers generally need to be declared and whitelisted against your entity. An undeclared link is a frequent cause of silent delivery failure.
Missing brand identity in the body
Message text that never names the sender reads as anonymous commercial content. Including your brand in the template body avoids this and helps recipients trust the SMS.
DLT Registration FAQs
Is DLT registration mandatory for sending SMS in India?
Yes. Under TRAI's TCCCPR 2018 regulations, any business sending commercial SMS in India must be registered as a Principal Entity on a DLT platform, with a registered header and registered content templates. Unregistered commercial SMS is blocked by the operators before it reaches the handset. It does not apply to normal person-to-person texting from your own phone.
How long does DLT registration take?
Entity approval usually takes a couple of working days once your documents are correct and consistent. Headers and templates are often approved faster than that, sometimes within hours. The delays people complain about are almost always caused by document mismatches or a rejected template rather than by the operator being slow, which is why having it done properly the first time matters.
Do I have to register on all four operator portals?
No. The DLT ledger is shared between operators, so registering your entity on one portal is recognised by the others. You register once, receive your Principal Entity ID, and then add headers and templates against that same entity.
What does DLT registration cost?
Registration on the operator portals involves one-time charges that vary by operator and change from time to time, so we quote the current figure rather than publish a number that goes stale. Guru SMS does not charge anything for doing the registration work itself — the entity, header and template filing is free with any of our plans.
What is a header and how do I choose one?
A header is the 6-character sender ID recipients see in place of a phone number, like GURUSM. Choose something recognisably derived from your registered brand name, because headers unrelated to your business — or ones that could be mistaken for another brand — are rejected. You can register multiple headers, and promotional traffic uses a header separate from your service traffic.
What does {#var#} mean in a DLT template?
It is the placeholder that marks the part of a message that changes per recipient — a name, an OTP, an amount, a date. You register the fixed wording and mark the changing values as {#var#}. Variables are meant for values, not whole sentences: a template built almost entirely from variables will be rejected.
Do I need a new template every time I change the wording?
Yes. The registered template must match what you send character for character, so any change to the fixed text needs a new template registered and approved first. Values inside your {#var#} placeholders can change freely — that is exactly what they are for. Your entity and header stay as they are.
Can Guru SMS do the DLT registration for me?
Yes, and we do it at no charge for our customers. We prepare the documents, register your entity, secure your header, write and file your templates in the right categories, and link everything to your account so your first campaign actually delivers. Most of our clients are sending within a few working days of sending us their paperwork.
Let us handle your DLT registration
Send us your documents once and we will register the entity, secure your header, file your templates in the correct categories and link it all to your account — free with any Guru SMS plan.
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