Understanding bulk SMS and its regulatory guidelines using AM, VM, AD and other codes for promotional marketing purposes
SMS (Short messaging service) is part of telecom, which is regulated by Government of India. Few years ago, SMS prices were very low, as low as a paisa per SMS or free in some cases leading to SMS flood in the country. Every small, medium or large business uses this tool to communicate their business proposal with their potential customers using a new generation broadcasting tool called Bulk SMS.
This resulted in unwanted messages to mobile users and hence to regulate such unwanted messages or calls TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has given guidelines to regulate SMS for commercial purpose. With several amendments and guidelines around promotional SMS marketing there have been several changes and rules to govern.
MS is classified as Promotional SMS and Transactional SMS
MS is classified as Promotional SMS and Transactional SMS
Promotional SMS:
This is easy to understand, any SMS communication promoting some business sent to any mobile which is not part of NDNC registry in the same category of the business.
Mobile subscribers can register with NDNC with in following categories:
- Banking / Insurance / Financial products / credit cards
- Real Estate
- Education
- Health
- Consumer goods and automobiles
- Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT
- Tourism and Leisure
If none of the above categories
As a business, you can only send Promotional SMS messages between 9 AM and 9 PM. All the messages will have a 5 digit numeric sender id prefixed with operator code. Ex LM-16021
Transactional SMS :
What is the meaning of SMS codes like AM, VM and AD in text messages:
When you receive SMS’s like LM-VODAFONE, TD-AMAZON, MM-FACEBK etc. are messages sent by financial institutions, telecom service providers, social networking sites etc. such institutes have started prefixing these codes like AM, VM, AD and to name some more LM, MM, BT, TA, AD, ID, AT, VK..
Let us brief the significance of these codes:
Such SMS’s are originated from bulk SMS providers and are restricted by TRAI with ‘Sender ID’ of minimum 6 characters.
Three characters to specify the identity of the bulk SMS service provider and its origination, let us illustrate with an example: LM-WAYSMS message heading when received indicates that ‘LM’ loop mobile bulk message has been sent to you from Mumbai. First character specifies which service provider the message is being originated from and the second character specifies the location of the SMS.
The following codes will help you relate your bulk messages:
Service provider codes-
A: Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom
B: BSNL
C: Datacom
D: Aircel and Dishnet Wireless
E: Reliance Telecom
H: HFCL
I: Idea Cellular, Aditya Birla Telecom
L: Loop Telecom and BPL
M: MTNL
P: Spice Communications
R: Reliance Communications
S: S. Tel Ltd
T: Tata Teleservices, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra
U: Unitech Group of Companies (Telenor)
V: Vodafone Group of Companies
W: Swan Telecom
Service Area Codes-
A: Andhra Pradesh
B: Bihar
D: Delhi
E: UP (East)
G: Gujarat
H: Haryana
I: Himachal Pradesh
J: Jammu & Kashmir
K: Kolkata
L: Kerala
M: Mumbai
N: North East
O: Orissa
P: Punjab
R: Rajasthan
S: Assam
T: Tamil Nadu, including Chennai
V: West Bengal
W: UP (West)
X: Karnataka
Y: Madhya Pradesh
Z: Maharashtra
So when you receive SMS from VM-AMAZON, that means they are using Vodafone and sending from Mumbai.
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