DLT-registered · Jio + Airtel + Vi direct

A2P SMS, OTP, and sender ID rules in India.

BroadNet delivers A2P SMS and OTP in India over direct connections to Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vi, plus an operator-grade route to BSNL, with TRAI sender ID registration in 3-7 business days (DLT header registration). DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) registration for Header, Entity, and Template handled inside the BroadNet console. Direct termination to Jio, Airtel, and Vi (Vodafone Idea).

Request route availability for India Get pricing for India

+91·MCC 404 / 405·TRAI·INR billing

Routing snapshot

Direct operators

Operator-direct binds to every major MNO.

Latency

3.0 s

typical OTP

Typical delivery

99.2%

typical delivery rate

Price band

INR 0.183 – 0.2163

per SMS

Regulator

TRAI

sender ID filed

Carrier-grade infrastructure, operating since 2003.

Indicative from-rates

From-rates by channel in India

Plan a launch See the full rate card

SMSfrom$0.0022per SMSIndicative list rate, reviewed September 24, 2026Volume pricing available
OTPRequest a quote Channel list rate from $0.0120 per verification (all markets)
WhatsAppRequest a quote Channel list rate from $0.0135 per template message (all markets)
RCSRequest a quote Channel list rate from $0.0080 per session (all markets)
VoiceRequest a quote Channel list rate from $0.0150 per minute (all markets)

Indicative list prices in USD, excluding taxes and sender-ID registration fees. Final per-operator pricing is confirmed in your quote.

02 · Country overview

The India A2P market at a glance.

India

Direct operators · 3

IndiaOther BroadNet marketsBroadNet HQ, Dubai

India is the world's second-largest mobile market — 1.15B subscriptions across Jio, Airtel, Vi (Vodafone Idea), and BSNL. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) runs the world's most formalised A2P regime: every sender ID (header) and every message template must be registered on the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) blockchain via one of the operator-run portals before traffic flows. Categories are strictly enforced (transactional, service, promotional); the regulator's commercial-communications regulation (TCCCPR 2018) and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 stack on top.

Technical facts

Technical facts for India

Network codes, message lengths and sender-ID rules in one table. Segment lengths are the GSM standard values (3GPP TS 23.038).

Technical facts for India
Mobile country code (MCC)	404 / 405
Dialling code	+91
Operators (MCC-MNC)	Reliance Jio · 405-840 Bharti Airtel · 404-10 Vi (Vodafone Idea) · 404-11 BSNL · 404-34
SMS length, GSM-7 (Latin alphabet)	160 characters in a single SMS; 153 per part when concatenated
SMS length, UCS-2 (Arabic, Cyrillic and other scripts)	70 characters in a single SMS; 67 per part when concatenated
Regulator	TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)
Sender-ID rules	TRAI DLT registration mandatory: Header (sender ID), Entity, and Template all pre-registered on the DLT blockchain. Every message variant scrubbed at operator firewall.
Sender-ID lead time	3-7 business days (DLT header registration)

How to register a sender ID

03 · Supported channels

Channels live in India.

One contract, one contact model. Fall back between SMS, WhatsApp, and Voice with shared opt-in evidence and a single audit trail.

Live

SMS

Operator-direct A2P to Jio, Airtel, Vi, and BSNL. DLT header + template registration mandatory.

Live

OTP

Sub-4-second median; DLT-scrubbed transactional and service categories.

Live

WhatsApp Business API live; India is Meta's largest WhatsApp consumer market.

Live

RCS

RCS Business Messaging widely available — Google's MaaP launch market.

Live

Voice

Voice OTP and TTS available with Indian-English and 10+ regional-language voices.

04 · Sender ID registration

How do I register a sender ID in India?

Filed end-to-end by BroadNet's compliance team — KYC pack, operator approval, and renewal cycles handled on your behalf.

Scope

TRAI / DLT · Jio, Airtel, Vi, BSNL

3–7 business days for header; 1–3 business days per template

Format: 6-character alphanumeric header registered on DLT (suffix encodes category)
Pre-registration: Mandatory — header + every message template registered on DLT before send
KYC documents: Indian company registration, GST number, signed letter of authorisation, sample templates, DLT category declaration
Renewal cycle: Principal Entity: yearly (30-day grace); headers: lifetime, returned to the pool after 90 days unused
Common rejection causes: Templates with unregistered variables, promo content under a transactional header, regional-language template encoding mismatches, or headers that don't match the registered brand on the DLT chain.

05 · OTP delivery

What OTP delivery looks like in India.

Latency profile, peak-hour behaviour, recommended fallback chain, and the fraud signals our firewall watches in-market.

Typical latency window

Median 3.8s with p95 inside 9s on Jio, Airtel, and Vi. Two-shot OTP delivery confirmed via DLR; DLT-scrubbed for category compliance pre-send.

Peak-hour behaviour

India's mass-send pattern is bimodal (morning + evening peaks); operator firewalls strict during commercial hours. BroadNet load-shapes per-MNO and per-DLT-category.

Fallback chain

Recommended chain: SMS (primary, DLT-registered) → WhatsApp Business OTP after 30s no-DLR → Voice OTP after 60s. Flash-call OTP available where the operator permits.

Fraud signals we watch

Template-variance attacks and OTP harvesting on fintech onboarding are dominant. DLT category drift (promo body under a transactional header) is auto-detected. SIM-farm OTP harvesting watched at per-MSISDN velocity.

06 · Marketing SMS rules

What you can — and can't — send.

Opt-in, opt-out, quiet hours, content restrictions, and the penalty regime for the India market.

Opt-in

TRAI TCCCPR 2018 requires verifiable opt-in. DPDP Act 2023 adds explicit consent capture and data-subject rights on top. Consent source, timestamp, and channel logged per-recipient.

Opt-out

STOP keyword honoured network-wide. DND (Do-Not-Disturb) registry suppression applied automatically; full-block and partial-block preferences honoured by category.

Quiet hours

Under TCCCPR 2018 the time bands outside 10:00–21:00 IST are off by default for promotional traffic. Transactional and service categories run 24/7.

Content restrictions

DLT-registered templates only. Promo content under a transactional header is blocked. Regional-language UCS-2 templates supported across 10+ scripts.

Regulator penalties

TRAI fines for off-template or off-category traffic; DPDP Act penalties up to INR 250 crore for the underlying data-protection violation. Header delisting on repeated breach.

07 · Local operators

Termination,
network by network.

The route status column shows how each operator is reached — a direct BroadNet bind or a labelled partner route. No grey-route exposure. Route grades are indicative planning guides, not live measurements.

Operator	MCC-MNC	Route status	Grade	A2P rate (typ.)
Reliance Jio	405-840	Direct	A+	INR 0.183
Bharti Airtel	404-10	Direct	A+	INR 0.1997
Vi (Vodafone Idea)	404-11	Direct	A	INR 0.2163
BSNL	404-34	Operator-grade	B+	INR 0.2163

Rates shown are typical pay-as-you-go for transactional traffic. Promotional traffic is priced separately, and volume tiers reduce both. See the rate-card section below for the full ladder.

Tier	Transactional	Promotional	Notes
Pay-as-you-go	INR 0.183	INR 0.224	List rate up to 100K messages/month
Growth · 100K+	INR 0.161	INR 0.197	Auto-tier discount
Volume · 1M+	INR 0.135	INR 0.166	Includes quarterly route review
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Direct operator pricing + signed SLA

DLT Header / Entity / Template registration handled in-console — header registration typically takes 3-7 business days and each content template 1-3 business days. Once live, every message is scrubbed in real time against your registered header and templates at the operator firewall.

Open the India rate card

08 · Compliance

Compliant
by default.

Every send is pre-screened against Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) rules, the operator firewalls, and the local privacy framework. Where registration is required, BroadNet files the paperwork on your behalf.

DPDP Act 2023 governs PII (Data Protection Board enforcement). DND (Do Not Disturb) registry honoured for promotional. Under TCCCPR 2018, promotional delivery is by default limited to 10:00-21:00 IST; Service Implicit and Transactional 24/7.

Full regulatory deep-dive

TRAI DLT registration

Header (sender ID), Entity (your company), and Template (every message variant) must be pre-registered on the DLT blockchain. Scrubbed at operator firewall.

DND (Do Not Disturb) registry

TRAI DND consent must be honoured for promotional. Transactional and Service Implicit can override DND with regulator approval.

22 scheduled languages

Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, and 17 more — all UCS-2 termination, no transliteration penalty.

Promotional time windows

TCCCPR 2018 keeps the time bands outside 10:00 - 21:00 IST off by default for promotional content. Service Implicit (OTP, alerts) is 24/7.

DPDP Act 2023

Digital Personal Data Protection Act applies — consent, purpose limitation, breach notification, and Data Protection Board enforcement.

09 · Use cases

Programmes that work well in India.

Where the BroadNet operator-direct footprint, the local regulator regime, and consumer messaging habits line up.

01
Fintech (UPI, lending, neobank) OTP and KYC-step notifications — India is the largest A2P fintech market globally.
02
E-commerce OTP and order-tracking at festival-season scale (Diwali, Big Billion Days).
03
Ride-hail, food-delivery, and quick-commerce operational alerts (Ola, Swiggy, Zepto-style flows).
04
Government and DigiLocker / Aadhaar-linked citizen-services notifications.
05
B2B SaaS and SaaS-export account onboarding and MFA.

10 · How BroadNet helps

What we run for India senders.

The operator relationships, the compliance workflow, the routing position — all on a single contract and a single account team.

DLT header and template registration handled end-to-end on Jio, Airtel, Vi, and BSNL portals.
Per-DLT-category template review and variance-attack detection built into the template engine.
Operator-direct binds — no aggregator hops, no DLT-scrubbing surprises at the carrier edge.
Regional-language UCS-2 routing first-class — 10+ Indic scripts supported without SLA penalty.
DPDP-aligned data plane with consent capture and data-subject-rights workflow built in.
INR-equivalent billing with USD also available; automatic volume tiers from 100K messages a month.

11 · FAQ

Buyer questions about India.

The questions BroadNet's sales engineers field every week from teams shipping into this market.

Do I need to register every message template on DLT?

Yes — TRAI mandates that every sender header and every message template be registered on DLT before traffic flows. BroadNet handles both via the operator portals; templates clear in 1–3 business days.

What's the difference between transactional, service, and promotional DLT categories?

Transactional covers OTP and account-level alerts (24/7, no DND filter). Service covers operational alerts the recipient has implicit consent for (24/7, partial DND filter). Promotional covers marketing (by default only 10:00–21:00 IST, full DND filter applied).

Can I send regional-language SMS to India?

Yes — UCS-2 routing supports 10+ Indic scripts at parity with English. Templates must be registered per-language on DLT, and BroadNet's compliance team handles the per-language KYC pack.

How does the DPDP Act 2023 affect my A2P programme?

Explicit consent capture, data-subject rights, and breach notification all apply on top of TRAI's commercial-communications rules. Fines run up to INR 250 crore for the underlying data-protection violation. BroadNet's contact model captures the DPDP-required basis automatically.

Is WhatsApp Business API live in India?

Yes — India is Meta's largest WhatsApp consumer market. WhatsApp Business API is live, with BroadNet as an official Meta Business Solution Provider (BSP); OTP, utility, and authentication templates are supported alongside marketing on the same contract and opt-in evidence.

Is RCS Business Messaging available?

Yes — India was a Google MaaP launch market and RCS is widely available on enabled handsets. Verified-sender RCS is recommended for high-trust brands.

What's the typical OTP latency on Jio?

Typical figures: median 3.8s with p95 inside 9s on Jio, Airtel, and Vi. DLT-scrubbed pre-send; DLR-confirmed two-shot delivery. Long-tail outliers are usually handset reachability rather than network.

How do you handle the DND registry?

DND suppression is applied automatically at send. Full-block and partial-block preferences are honoured by DLT category. Transactional OTP is exempt; service and promotional traffic is filtered per the recipient's registered preferences.

12 · Sample template

A ready-to-adapt template for India.

In the local script alongside English. Copy, swap the brand, and we'll register it as part of your sender-ID onboarding.

Mobile subscribers: 1,150M
Sender ID lead: 3-7 business days (DLT header registration)
Time-to-launch: Live in 5–15 business days from test-access request to production
Billed in: INR / USD

Sample A2P template · India

English

Your OTP is 384921. Valid for 5 minutes. Do not share.

Hindi

आपका OTP 384921 है। 5 मिनट के लिए वैध। साझा न करें।

TRAI DLT registration mandatory: Header (sender ID), Entity, and Template all pre-registered on the DLT blockchain. Every message variant scrubbed at operator firewall.

13 · Region