UAE SMS Features and Restrictions
United Arab Emirates SMS Registration Guidelines
To reduce SMS spam risk, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) requires that organizations register all traffic for sending SMS to customers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Ensure you meet all the following requirements:
- All marketing SMS require prior consent with date, time, content of the consent, and the recipient’s signature.
- Consent may not be sought via SMS or voice call.
- Effective unsubscribe facilities must be made available. Marketing SMS should contain only the code 7726 as an opt-out mechanism.
- Marketing SMS may not be sent to mobile users between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. UAE time.
- No SMS shall be sent to subscribers encouraging them to call or send an SMS or other electronic communication to a premium rate number.
- Sender IDs should be no more than 11 characters, inclusive of the “AD-” prefix.
- Any marketing SMS for medical centers requires prior Ministry of Health approval.
Guidelines and Action Required
- If you have not yet registered, contact your account manager to request a registration form.
- If you have not registered your SMS traffic and Sender ID(s) with the TRA, you must do so immediately.
- If you are not registered, all of your SMS traffic will be blocked.
- All registered marketing SMS traffic must be sent in the correct format with the prefix of “AD-” included with the Sender ID.
- Format violations will result in the TRA charging a significant penalty of up to 400,000 AED (roughly $108,900 USD) per non-compliant message, which you shall bear responsibility for in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy. Suspected violations may also result in account suspension or termination.
- Users who have previously registered a Sender ID but without the prefix “AD-“ and are using this to send marketing traffic must register these Sender IDs again with the TRA.
- All Registered Sender IDs are case sensitive.
Ensure that you have followed all of these guidelines. If you are not registered and compliant, you will not be able to send SMS traffic in the UAE. Contact your account manager to register your traffic and ensure delivery.
Standard Compliance Guidelines
Adult Content
Adult content is not allowed.
Political Content
Political content is not allowed.
Religious Content
Religious content is not allowed.
There are no other additional content restrictions beyond those in our Acceptable Use Policy.
Unicode
Unicode is supported.
Concatenated Messages
Concatenated messages are supported.
Verify Messages
Verify messages will be displayed as 'Connect.'
Delivery Receipts
Handset delivery receipts are supported.
Additional Information
For more information, see the following articles:
Comments
5 comments
What does this mean? If I set an outbound messages sender ID to our local UAE number, then on delivery, the target user will see 2018 or 4720, respectively. So, there's no way for the target person to reply to our number?
I'll second that. What happens when they reply to the short code? Are their any particular foreign countries that receive SMS better than others? I need bidirectional SMSs into and out of the UAE.
I have tested 3-4 Different routes providers and all allow to send SMS to DU UAE with longcode atleast.
What do you mean by 'unless Sender ID had been pre-registered' ? Is there a way we can register more than one sender ID and replace this dynamically while sending the sms?
It means we can register your sender(s) with the local carriers. It takes few weeks but it is possible.
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