DLT registration for SMS: the 7 things that get your templates rejected

Every commercial SMS sent in India goes through DLT — the blockchain-based registration layer the telecom regulator mandates. You register your entity, your headers (sender IDs) and every message template before a single message can be delivered. Teams routinely lose two or three weeks here, almost always to the same avoidable mistakes.

The seven rejection reasons

• Variables used to smuggle content. A template of '{#var#}' with nothing else reads as an attempt to send arbitrary text. Variables are for names, amounts, order IDs and OTPs — not for the body of the message.
• Wrong category. Transactional, service-implicit, service-explicit and promotional have different rules. A discount inside a transactional template gets the template rejected and can put the header at risk.
• Brand name in the body that does not match the registered entity. The name in the template must match the entity registration exactly, including the legal suffix.
• URL shorteners that are not whitelisted. Generic short links are refused. Register your own domain or subdomain as the link.
• Missing opt-out language on promotional templates.
• Special characters and emoji in headers. Headers are six alphanumeric characters — nothing else.
• One template per use case forgotten. Every variant you plan to send needs its own approved template; you cannot edit the copy after approval.

Write the template so it clears the first time

Draft the message exactly as the customer will see it, then replace only the parts that genuinely change per recipient with variables. Keep at least 70 percent of the template as fixed text. Match the registered entity name character for character. Put the opt-out on promotional templates even when you think it is not required — it costs eight characters and removes a whole class of rejection.

Plan the calendar around it

• Entity registration: allow up to a week, longer if your documents need correction.
• Header approval: a couple of working days per header. Register the headers you will need in six months now, not later.
• Template approval: usually faster, but every rejection restarts the clock. Submit in batches so one rejection does not stall the campaign.
• Keep a spreadsheet of template ID, category, header and live copy. When a message fails in production this is the first thing you will need.

None of this is difficult. It is just unforgiving of guesswork — which is exactly why campaigns that plan for it launch on time and the rest do not.