India (IN)

Locale name

India

ISO code
The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.

IN

Region

Asia

Mobile country code
A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.

404, 405

Dialing code
The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.

+91

Two-way SMS supported
Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.

No

Number portability available
Whether number portability is available in the given locale.

Yes

Twilio concatenated message support
Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one. 

Yes*
For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.

Message length
How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.

160 characters

Twilio MMS support
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.

Converted to SMS with embedded URL

Sending SMS to landline numbers
How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.

You cannot send SMS to a landline destination number: the Twilio REST API will throw a 400 response with error code 21614, the message will not appear in the logs, and the account will not be charged.

Compliance considerations
Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.

Twilio offers SMS delivery to India through both International and Domestic gateways.

International:

• No DLT registration is required.
• Messages are transmitted via mobile operators’ International Long Distance Operator (ILDO) connections.
• Messages are sent using random ILDO-approved short codes in the format 5NNNN—5NNNNNNNN (e.g., 54321).
• Messages from international customers bypass India’s Do-Not-Disturb (DND) database and are delivered without any time-of-day restrictions.

Domestic:

• Completion of company and Sender ID registration within the mobile operators’ DLT portal is necessary before submitting a registration request to Twilio.
• Messages will be delivered with the customer’s DLT-registered Alphanumeric Sender ID.
• Currently, Twilio only supports registration for DLT-registered Alphanumeric Sender IDs but is exploring adding support for promotional messages via DLT-approved 6-digit Sender ID in the near future.

Sending firearms, gambling, adult content, money/loan, political, religious, controlled substance, cannabis, and alcohol related content is strictly prohibited. Sending messages with shortened URL is not allowed.

Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. The following are some general best practices:

1. Get opt-in consent from each end-user before sending any communication to them, particularly for marketing or other non-essential communications.
2. Only communicate during an end-user’s daytime hours unless it is urgent.
3. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end-user’s local language.
4. Do not contact end-users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.
5. Sending gambling related content is strictly prohibited.

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Supported

Supported

Not Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Not Supported

Supported
Learn more

Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

N/A

Mobile operators will append a two-letter prefix to the registered alphanumeric sender ID. 

For instance, if you send a message from the registered alphanumeric sender ID "TWILIO," it could be delivered as "VM-TWILIO."

No

Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

N/A

10 business days

N/A

UCS-2 support

N/A

Yes

Yes

Use case restrictions

DLT registered alphanumeric Sender IDs must be used strictly according to its DLT approved use-case, such as transactional, service implicit, or service explicit.

Any Alphanumeric Sender ID sent to Indian mobile subscribers will be overwritten with a random short number between five and nine digits long of the format 5NNNN—5NNNNNNN.

Best practices

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Not Supported

Not Supported

Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

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Supported

Not Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

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No

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Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

N/A

N/A

N/A

UCS-2 support

N/A

Supported

N/A

Use case restrictions

N/A

Any Numeric Sender ID sent to Indian mobile subscribers will be overwritten with a random short number between five and nine digits long of the format 5NNNN—5NNNNNNN.

N/A

Best practices

N/A

N/A

N/A