# India DLT (https://www.getfounderhq.com/docs/sequences/india-dlt) Send SMS to Indian numbers without operator rejections. About 15 minutes in FounderHQ, after your DLT registration is approved. You need an approved DLT registration on an operator portal (Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea, or BSNL), and an Indian SMS connection — [Exotel or MSG91](/sequences/sms). ## What DLT asks of you TRAI requires every business sending business-to-consumer SMS in India to register on a Distributed Ledger Technology portal run by an operator. You register three things: - **Your business**, which gets a Principal Entity ID (PE ID). - **Your sender headers** — the short name the message comes from, up to 11 characters. Indian headers are usually 6. - **Your content templates** — the exact wording of each message, with the changing parts written as `{#var#}`. Each approved template gets a DLT template ID. Your aggregator then wants some of these values attached to every message, and the operator checks the message text against the registered template before it delivers. ## Where each value goes in FounderHQ | Value | Where you put it | Why there | | --- | --- | --- | | PE ID | On the SMS connection | It is the same for every message your business sends | | Sender ID | On the SMS template | Different messages can use different headers | | DLT template ID | On the SMS template | It identifies that message's registered wording | | Message category | On the SMS template | It sets the regulatory route the aggregator uses | Open Sequences in FounderHQ, open the SMS template, and fill in its DLT settings. Your registered wording goes in the message body as usual — FounderHQ's variables stand where the `{#var#}` placeholders stand in the registered template. ## Message categories Pick the one your DLT template was registered under: - **Transactional** — OTPs and alerts tied to a transaction. - **Promotional** — marketing, sent only to numbers not on DND. - **Service implicit** — service updates a customer relationship implies. - **Service explicit** — service messages the customer opted in to. The category drives the route your aggregator uses. Promotional and transactional traffic are billed and throttled differently, so a mismatch gets messages rejected. ## Wording drift Operators match the delivered text against the registered template. If the two drift apart, delivery fails. FounderHQ takes a snapshot of the message text at the moment you set or confirm the DLT template ID. When you later edit the text, FounderHQ compares it to that snapshot and warns you that the template no longer matches what you registered. Re-register the wording on the DLT portal, or put the text back. ## Two things worth knowing **Your DLT template IDs are portable.** They are registered against your business, not against your aggregator. Move from Exotel to MSG91 and the same templates keep working. This is why FounderHQ keeps DLT values on the template rather than on the connection. **FounderHQ cannot check your IDs.** The DLT portals have no API to check against, so FounderHQ takes what you type. A wrong ID shows up as a rejection from your aggregator, not as an error in FounderHQ. What FounderHQ does protect you from is a *blank* DLT value. If your connection needs a sender ID or a DLT template ID and the template has none, the send fails and says so. It never sends an empty regulatory field and lets the operator guess. ## Verify 1. Open the SMS template in FounderHQ. Its DLT settings show a sender ID, a DLT template ID, and a category, with no missing-field warning. 2. Run your own Indian number through a one-step sequence. 3. The message arrives with your registered header, and the sequence shows it as Sent, then Delivered. ## Troubleshoot ### The send fails saying a DLT field is missing The template has no sender ID or no DLT template ID. Fill both in and publish the template again. ### The aggregator rejects the message Either the DLT template ID does not match the wording sent, or the category is wrong for the route. Compare the message text to the registered template character by character — including punctuation and line breaks. ### You want to send to India through Twilio instead Twilio delivers Indian SMS once your DLT registration is in place, and it does not need per-message DLT fields — the carriers match on content. Local aggregators are usually a lot cheaper for volume, which is why FounderHQ ships Exotel and MSG91 recipes.