DLT registration in India

In India, every organisation that sends SMS to customers, parents or staff through a business service must be registered on a DLT platform, under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) rules on commercial communication. The mobile operators run these platforms. Each SMS your school sends is checked against what is registered: the sender, the sender ID and the exact message text. A message that does not match is blocked before it reaches the phone.

JPRAXC registers your school on DLT on your behalf, using the details you send from the School ERP. Your school remains responsible for the registrations and documents submitted in its name, so it helps to understand what is being registered.

The three things that are registered#

1. Your organisation (the Principal Entity)#

The school, trust or society that sends the messages is registered once as the Principal Entity. Registration is made on one operator's DLT portal and is shared with the others.

Usually needed:

• The organisation's legal name exactly as on its PAN.
• The organisation's PAN, and its GSTIN if it has one.
• A proof of the organisation, such as a registration, affiliation or GST certificate.
• An authorised signatory with their mobile number, e-mail and identity proof, and a letter authorising them, on the organisation's letterhead.
• The registration fee the portal charges.

After approval, the organisation receives a Principal Entity ID (PE ID), a 19-digit number. If your school already has one, give it to JPRAXC instead of registering again.

2. Your sender IDs (headers)#

The sender ID is the short name a parent sees as the sender, instead of a phone number.

• For fee reminders, receipts, attendance, results and notices, the header is six letters that stand for the school, for example SUNPSC for Sunrise Public School.
• A header should be clearly linked to the organisation's name. The portal may refuse one that looks like another brand's.
• Each header is registered for a type of message. The School ERP asks for one Service header for everyday school messages and, if the school sends sign-in codes, a Transactional header (OTP).

3. Your message texts (content templates)#

Every message text is registered word for word, with the parts that change marked as variables.

• A variable is written {#var#}. It stands for the part the ERP fills in, such as a name, an amount or a date. Each variable can hold up to 30 characters.
• Each template has a type. In short: sign-in codes are Transactional; fee reminders, receipts, attendance, results and notices to families who already study with you are Service messages; offers and admission campaigns to people who have not asked are Promotional and follow stricter rules.
• After approval, each template gets its own Template ID.
• If a template contains a web link or a call-back number, the portal may ask for it to be whitelisted too.

Example of a registered text:

Fee for {#var#} is due. Kindly pay at the school office or through the parent portal. - Sunrise Public School

The telemarketer chain#

The messages reach the networks through registered telemarketers. The DLT rules require the Principal Entity's chain of telemarketers to be declared on the platform. JPRAXC records this for you. If the Telemarketer chain line in the School ERP asks you to add a telemarketer on the platform, sign in to your DLT portal and add the telemarketer ID shown in that line.

How long it takes#

Each step is checked by the operator: the organisation first, then the headers, then the templates. Approval usually takes a few working days, and a refusal comes with a reason that can be corrected and sent again. The School ERP shows where your registration stands; see Sender IDs and message templates in the ERP.

Good to know#

• Send only the kinds of messages you registered. A promotional message sent under a service header is refused.
• Keep your wording fixed. If the text in the ERP no longer matches the registered template, the message is refused. Register the new wording first.
• Message only people who gave the school their number for this purpose.
• The DLT rules and portal screens are set by TRAI and the operators, and can change. When a portal asks for something not listed here, follow the portal, or ask JPRAXC support at support@jpraxc.com.