UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (AE)

Country Summary

Country name	United Arab Emirates
ISO code	AE
Region	Middle East & Africa
Mobile country code	424
Dialing code	+971
Major carriers	Etisalat, du

Guidelines

Two-way SMS supported	No
Twilio concatenated message support	Yes
Message length	160 Characters
Twilio MMS support	Converted to SMS with embedded URL
Sending SMS to landline numbers	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	Carriers in the United Arab Emirates are heavily filtering SMS traffic, so Twilio recommends pre-registering a Sender ID to bypass carrier filters and improve delivery. Unregistered Sender IDs will be replaced with generic Alphanumeric Sender IDs and may be blocked by carriers. For marketing/promotional traffic, you must include the necessary information on how to opt-out of receiving SMS by using the 7726 short code, which protects subscribers from receiving unwanted SMS messages. Any messages sent without the STOP instructions will be blocked. Here is the recommended format for STOP instructions: To stop receiving SMS reply “b [senderID] to 7726." 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: Get opt-in consent from each end user before sending any communication to them, particular for marketing or other non-essential communications. Only communicate during an end user's daytime hours unless it is urgent. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end user's local language. Do not contact end users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Phone Numbers & Sender ID

	Alphanumeric		Long Code		Short Code
	Pre-registration	Dynamic	Domestic	International
Operator network capability	Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported	Supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	Yes	No	---	No	---
Provisioning time	2 weeks	---	---	---	---
UCS-2 support	---	---	---	---	---
Use case restrictions	Only transactional traffic (OTPs, notifications) can be sent through pre-registered Sender IDs. Promotional and Marketing traffic are strictly prohibited. Messages that contain adult, gambling, or religious content will be blocked.	Alphanumeric is only supported through pre-registration.	---	Numeric Sender IDs will be overwritten into generic alphanumeric sender IDs outside Twilio's platform.	---
Best practices	Only transactional traffic (OTPs, notifications) can be sent through pre-registered Sender IDs. Promotional and Marketing traffic are strictly prohibited.	---	---	You may use a global SMS-capable number to reach mobile phones in the United Arab Emirates.	---

	Alphanumeric - Pre-registration
Operator network capability	Supported
Twilio supported	Supported
Sender ID preserved	Yes
Provisioning time	2 weeks
UCS-2 support	---
Use case restrictions	Only transactional traffic (OTPs, notifications) can be sent through pre-registered Sender IDs. Promotional and Marketing traffic are strictly prohibited. Messages that contain adult, gambling, or religious content will be blocked.
Best practices	Only transactional traffic (OTPs, notifications) can be sent through pre-registered Sender IDs. Promotional and Marketing traffic are strictly prohibited.

	Alphanumeric - Dynamic
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	No
Provisioning time	---
UCS-2 support	---
Use case restrictions	Alphanumeric is only supported through pre-registration.
Best practices	---

	Long Code - Domestic
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	---
Provisioning time	---
UCS-2 support	---
Use case restrictions	---
Best practices	---

	Long Code - International
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Supported
Sender ID preserved	No
Provisioning time	---
UCS-2 support	---
Use case restrictions	Numeric Sender IDs will be overwritten into generic alphanumeric sender IDs outside Twilio's platform.
Best practices	You may use a global SMS-capable number to reach mobile phones in the United Arab Emirates.

	Short Code
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	---
Provisioning time	---
UCS-2 support	---
Use case restrictions	---
Best practices	---

For the benefit of all our customers, these guidelines are provided to help you comply with applicable requirements and to help ensure Twilio's platform remains compliant with global telecommunications ecosystem requirements. These guidelines represent our current understanding of common compliance requirements generally applicable to Twilio and its customers, and do not constitute legal advice. By posting these guidelines, Twilio makes no assurances regarding the legal compliance of your application built using our APIs. You are expected to understand and abide by all compliance obligations applicable to your specific application. You should check these pages regularly for updates as telecommunications ecosystem requirements continue to evolve and change, and the information below may be updated or changed without notice.