CTA Whitelisting | FAQs

Important

SMS CTA Whitelisting Guidelines are applicable to all who send DLT based SMSs in India. If you do not send DLT based messages in India, you can safely ignore this.


TRAI has mandated to Whitelist CTA details like URLs / APKs / OTT Links / WABA links / Callback Numbers on the DLT Platform.



Here are the related FAQs:


Q. Do we to whitelist CTAs on multiple DLT Portals?

A. No, just whitelist on any one DLT.


Q. CTA (URLs and Callback Numbers) of static SMS part should also be whitelisted on DLT?

A. Yes


Q. What are the consequences of not complying with CTA whitelisting?
A. Any message containing non-whitelisted CTA will be REJECTED by Telecos


Q. Are redirection URLs allowed?

A. Yes, via Short URL mechanism


Q. Which Headers Type allowed for Short URL?

A. Only Alpha and Alphanumeric Headers allowed by DLT and Numeric Headers are not allowed


​Q. Is Header part of Short URL Case Sensitive?

A. There is conclusion on this, hence we recommend to ensure Case Sensitive while Whitelisting and while passing in SMS content


Q. What is the expiry time of the short url? 

A.  The default expiry time of the short url is 1 Year.


Q. Dynamic URL should end with Question Mark?

A. Yes


Q. Do Subdomain URLs need to be uploaded separately?

A.Yes


Q. Are IP based URLs allowed to be uploaded?

A. No, only Domain Name based URLs are allowed.


Q: We don't have URLs, APKs, OTT Links, WABA Links, or Callback Numbers in our SMS content. Do we need to do CTA whitelist?

A: No, you're all set. CTA Whitelisting is only needed if you're including any of the above as static or variable content.




Best practices and validation checks to follow:

Static URL

Should start with http, https or www

(?) Question mark not allowed

Dynamic URL

Should start with http, https or www

Mandatory to end in question mark (?)

APK URL

Should start with http, https or www

Mandatory to end with .apk

Whatsapp URL

Should start with http, https or www

Mobile number of INDIAN series to start with 91. (For 10 digits number) starts from 6-9

Short URL

Should start with http, https

Should have Sender ID at the end (https://m.9m.io/MSGIND/

Mobile Number

Can start with 91 OR without 91

Mobile number (For 10 digits number) starts from 6-9

Land Line Number - 10 digit

10 digits

Can start with 0 OR without 0

Toll Free Number

Starts from 1800 & 1860 and can be 8 to 11 digits


140 & 160 Series

10 digits only