TRAI Mandates New Message Suffixes – Here’s What You Need to Know
India’s telecom ecosystem is undergoing a silent yet significant transformation. Starting May 6, 2025, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) enforced a key update aimed at enhancing the transparency, traceability, and trust of A2P (Application-to-Person) SMS communication across the country. This regulatory update mandates the addition of message category suffixes in SMS headers, allowing mobile users to instantly recognize the nature of a message—whether it’s promotional, transactional, service-related, or government-authorized.
While it may seem like a minor change to the average user, this development carries major implications for businesses, marketers, and telecom operators. Here’s everything you need to know.
What’s new in SMS messaging?
TRAI has announced that all SMS headers—also known as Sender IDs—used for A2P communications must now end with a specific alphabetic suffix that reflects the message category. These suffixes will be automatically appended to SMS headers after content templates are scrubbed and validated on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform.
Understanding the New Suffix Tags
These changes are being implemented under the amended TCCCPR 2025 (Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulation), aimed at reducing unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) or spam.
Why this Change is a Big Deal, for Everyone
TRAI’s mandate is designed to solve a long-standing pain point in mobile communications: the inability to easily distinguish between types of SMS messages. In 2023 alone, India recorded over 75 billion spam messages, with 87% of users ignoring unknown or unbranded SMS messages. This new suffix system is intended to change that.
Key Benefits:
- Clear Message Categorization: Users will now know upfront if a message is promotional, service-oriented, transactional, or from a government body.
- Improved Trust and User Experience: The categorization will help reduce skepticism around SMS authenticity, increasing engagement with important alerts like OTPs, payment notifications, and appointment reminders.
- Regulatory Compliance: Businesses that fail to comply may face disruption or penalties. Automated suffixes ensure adherence to TRAI’s updated rules.
- Spam & Fraud Prevention: Identifying message types at a glance can help flag suspicious or misleading messages more effectively.
- Operational Efficiency for Telcos: Easier routing and categorization of messages based on their purpose.
Enterprises already using Trubloq.ai and Wisely ATP are well-equipped to manage this transition seamlessly—reducing friction and increasing compliance automation.
How It Works: Behind the Suffix Logic
This suffix will not be manually set by businesses. Instead, it will be appended automatically by telecom operators based on the message template registered and scrubbed via the DLT platform like Trubloq.
Impact on Enterprises and Marketers
If your organization relies on SMS for customer engagement—whether it’s a retail promotion, delivery update, banking OTP, or healthcare alert—this change directly affects how your message appears to your audience.
How to Stay Compliant and Prepared
- Review and Categorize DLT Templates: Ensure your templates are correctly labeled as per TRAI’s definitions.
- Coordinate with Your Telecom Partner: Ensure your messaging partner supports automated suffix integration post-DLT scrubbing.
- Educate Internal Teams: Your marketing and communication teams must understand the implications of these suffixes on brand visibility and compliance.
The good news? There’s no manual configuration needed for the suffix itself. But verifying the accuracy of your DLT template classification is crucial.
This isn’t just a compliance update—it’s a foundational step toward a more transparent messaging ecosystem. As more users grow aware of these suffixes and how to interpret them, we can expect:
- Better engagement with high-priority messages
- Reduced user frustration from spam or irrelevant messages
- Improved brand trust for enterprises that follow best practices
At Tanla, we believe in proactive compliance and transparency. Our patented solution, Trubloq.ai, plays a pivotal role in this ecosystem. As the world’s largest blockchain-based DLT platform, Trubloq.ai enables enterprises and telcos to register, scrub, and manage commercial SMS templates with real-time traceability. With built-in support for suffix-based classification, Trubloq.ai ensures seamless implementation of TRAI’s new directive, safeguarding over a billion messages daily and reinforcing user trust at scale.
