Notes about delivering SMS in certain countries:
Albania
Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC Mobil) (27601) filters for alphanumeric sender ID's. We recommend using a numeric sender ID that does not start with a 0 to bypass the filter.
Canada
Canada and the USA both have very specific messaging restrictions and a direct connection is necessary in order to ensure message delivery to the numerous networks.
Person-to-Person traffic may be sent to Canada, using a long virtual number as a sender (Alphanumeric senders are not supported). An SMS may originate from a mobile phone, a computer application or an internet-based service, but the message must have been initiated due to human interaction. Marketing campaigns and mobile content delivery, such as bulk notifications, cannot be sent to Canada via long code. MMA best practices can be found here.
The feature restrictions for our long-virtual-number route are as follows:
- Carriers do not send handset delivery receipts (LVN route only - default). Intermediate DLR (accepted status) will be provided as soon as the message reaches the operator's platform.
- Binary, VCard, unicode and long SMS are not supported by Canadian carriers.
- Euro symbol (€) and some accented characters are not supported by Canadian Carriers.
As usual, all messaging must be to opted-in users, otherwise it is treated as spam. End users are paying for incoming SMS, which is one of the reasons for strict anti-spam policy on this market.
China
In general the following restrictions apply for all Chinese carriers:
1. Sender ID could be replaced by numeric local (or Hong Kong) service code.
2. Message content length:
- up to 65chars UCS2 or 130chars ASCII for each non-concatenated SMS;
- up to 62chars UCS2 for each SMS if concatenated (not support ASCII).
3. Adult and especially political messages are very likely to be blocked. Known filtered keywords: Falung Gong, Tiananmen Square.
4. URL links are not allowed in messages. Any messages with a URL will be blocked.
5. Arabic characters cannot be supported into any Chinese networks.
Colombia
Sender ID could be replaced by numeric local service code. Delivery report (DLR) is not supported by the majority of the carriers, if received is only the successful send confirmation.
France
Since Orange France does not allow numeric senders, it is recommended to only send messages with alphanumeric sender.
India
Messages sent to numbers registered in the NDNC (National Do Not Call) list will be blocked.
- You can check the destination number on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India registry using the following search tool: http://www.nccptrai.gov.in/nccpregistry/search.misc (omit India International prefix 91)
- If you have transactional messages which are either user-generated or expected, you can ask our service desk to bypass this filter, it requires a 6 - Alphanumeric sender ID and SMS template for registration (minimum 20k SMS per month). This senderID will be used as often as possible but a small % of traffic will still be overwritten to ensure delivery. This is due to our Adaptive Routing technology which uses the optimum route for all of our traffic, updated on a dynamic basis.
Unregistered sender ID is fixed to a local shortcode as required by regulation.
We can only guarantee message delivery between 9am to 9pm. Messages submitted after 9pm we will attempt to send, but due to local regulations, these messages may be blocked or queued.
Number of messages to the same number limitations:
- More than 6 messages with the same sender or text to the same number within an hour may be blocked
- Users may not be able to receive more than a total of 200 SMS per day across all incoming streams.
Messages towards Jammu and Kashmir networks (example, 405/55 - Airtel J&K) will be blocked by the government due to political sensitivity.
Indonesia
There are a number of senderID changes which may take place to ensure your messages are delivered successfully:
- Telkomsel (51010) does not support dynamic senderID, all senderIDs will be overwritten by an alphanumeric string.
- 3 (51089) as dynamic senderID
- Indosat (51001), AXIS (51008), Smartfren (51009) and XL (51011) the sender may be modified to a numeric sender.
Iran
We recommend using International numeric sender ID to bypass network filters. Handset delivery receipts are not reliable for any of the networks.
- All alpha senders to Iran Telecom (43211) and MTN Irancell (43235) have to be whitelisted or will be overwritten by a numeric senderID.
- All alpha senders to Iran Rightel(43220) will be overwritten with a long number to ensure delivery.
- No religious, political or adult content is allowed.
Hong Kong
The Do not Disturb (DND) list is managed by a public authority and there are fines up to HK$500.000 for company sending SMS messages to people registered in that list. More information here: https://www.dnc.gov.hk/en/pub_general/rd/pub_info_en.html
Italy
The AGCOM (Italian Communications Authority) Resolution No. 42/13/CIR NRA, has now come into force. The Resolution deals with the registration of bulk SMS Outbound (MT) message originators, i.e. the alphanumeric characters used in the Sender ID to personalise Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS messages.
Until now, any business globally was allowed to terminate an SMS MT message to an Italian subscriber with a Sender ID comprised of any alpha, numeric or alphanumeric originators; and there was no process to help ensure that names used as Sender IDs were sent by the owners or licensees of the applicable brands, trademarks or trade names. For example, anyone globally could send a message to an Italian subscriber with the word ‘Apple Inc.’ in the Sender ID, with no process established to enable a subscriber to know whether Apple Inc. sent that message or not. Similarly, there was no easy way for the subscriber or AGCOM to contact the sender of the message; this potentially exposed subscribers to fraudulent messages and services.
Violators of these new regulations are subject to substantial monetary penalties.
All providers who operate A2P services in Italy must register their Sender IDs (and those of their customers) in a database maintained by AGCOM.
This means one of the following will apply to you as our customer.
- If you have already registered one or more Sender IDs, it is your responsibility to provide us with the information required by AGCOM in relation to you, your customers and the relevant Sender IDs.
- If you have not already registered a Sender ID, you must register a new one, using the form available in the admin console
What will happen to unregistered SenderIDs?
In order to comply with the Resolution we may (at our discretion) replace the unregistered Sender ID with a numeric Sender ID (a +39 number issued by the operators in Italy) or block the message.
What do I need to do and by when?
It is mandatory for all customers sending traffic towards Italy to complete the form available in your admin console (menu Settings > Account settings > Admin contacts).
Which SenderIDs are allowed?
The Sender ID must be directly related to the sending company. Any generic or not easily identifiable SenderID will not be accepted, causing the message to be sent with a numeric sender or blocked.
Japan
Unicode messages are supported when the content is Japanese characters. For other languages, some handsets may not be able to display them correctly.
Concatenated messages are currently not supported (i.e. the max message size for DoCoMo/Softbank: 160 bytes, while for KDDI: 100 bytes).
Delivery Receipts are unreliable.
URLs inside the message body are problematic, message delivery may fail. Those messages are classified as illegal and are either discarded completely or part of the illegal text will be removed
SenderID will be replaced with numeric fixed sender (different for each single operator). Alphanumeric sender ID's are not supported on KDDI and will be overwritten by a numeric sender, all local senders will be blocked. eMobile: All senderIDs will be modified to a numeric to ensure delivery.
Kuwait
Both numeric and alphanumeric senders are allowed.
Senders must be pre-registered with the Operator, at no additional cost.
Malaysia
"RMB 0.00" (with a space after the last 0) may be added to message bodies. This is so the end users know that they will not be charged for replying to Opt Out. If you have not put this in your message the operator will automatically add it and may compromise the maximum length of your sms (153 characters).
Portugal
Full support for alphanumerical senders (ie "MyCompany"), but numerical senders will be overwritten with "infoSMS".
Russia
Direct routes are only available for OTP (one time password) traffic and it supports dynamic customizable sender. This route needs a custom setup and registration at Megafon. Otherwise by default the sender is replaced by a russian long number.
Saudi Arabia
Transactional messages (not email marketing, but ex. Government, bank, temporary passwords ...) you need to contact the support team in order to be registered to the whitelist providing this data:
- Full Company Name
- All Sender IDs Associated with Enterprise traffic
- Message Description: this is a description of the messages content associated with each originator.
- End User Consent Evidence of how (location, media, source, etc.) and when (date & time) consent was given by an end user for the receipt of specific messages for every enterprise MSISDN Which is receiving specific enterprise message
*The sender must be alphanumeric (numbers are not allowed), and the aliases must be pre - registered with the Mobile Operator, at no additional cost.
Singapore
Customers must not to send promotional or marketing messages to mobile numbers registered in the new "National Do Not Call Registry" (DNC), unless the recipient has expressed in a clear and unambiguous consent. The DNC registry is an integral part of the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA) and will take effect from 2 July 2014. To do this you need to register and maintain a register http://www.dnc.gov.sg/ CONTROL every 30 days. The Penalties can be up to a 1 million SGD (Singapore Dollar, which is about half a million euro). Our Professional services team can help you in full managing this task.
Marketing of Moneylenders via SMS or Email is not allowed by the Government (Moneylenders Act and it specifically states, in section 2.2 (h)). Failing to comply with the restriction may lead to financial penalties imposed by the Singapore Government. This new regulation is being taken very seriously and from the information we have received, there are already a number of police investigations taking place for those who have chosen not to abide by this legislation.
South Korea
Only numerical senders are allowed. Alphanumeric and/or special characters are not allowed.
In addition:
1) alphanumeric senders will be converted to a number
2) long text messages (>160 characters) are not supported
3) there is no distinction between transactional and promotional messages
United Arab Emirates
Messages are categorized into two ways:
- marketing / promotion: to be approved you must submit a formal request, on letter that contains the details of the campaign (sender, content type, type of recipient) to support MailUp, who will transmit it to operators.
- transactional: a prior approval is not required, however, the sender will be overwritten with a shortcode (ex. 5070).
*Both numeric and alphanumeric senders are allowed. Senders must be pre-registered with the Mobile Operator at the cost of a setup fee plus a monthly fee for each alias. It is not necessary (as for China) to have a local registered business. The pre-registration requires 3-6 weeks to be activated. An authorization letter needs to be filled, stamped and signed up.
USA
The platform only supports transactional messages towards the US. It cannot be used for bulk promotional campaigns.
Please be aware that our transactional sms messaging service comes with the following limitations:
- no delivery receipt reports are available
- no overwritten sender is available
- you may not link more than one message, therefore max length is 160 characters if you are using Western alphabet (GSM charset)
- shortcodes and keywords are not supported
- no mobile opt-in/opt-out available