SOUTH AFRICA (ZA)

Country Summary

Country name	South Africa
ISO code	ZA
Region	Middle East & Africa
Mobile country code	655
Dialing code	+27
Major carriers	Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Telkom

Guidelines

Two-way SMS supported	Yes
Number portability available	Yes
Twilio concatenated message support	Yes
Message length	-----
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	Direct marketing messages are regulated under article 16 of the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) Code of Conduct. Unless a consumer has expressly or implicitly requested or agreed otherwise, marketing messages should not be sent on: Sundays and public holidays; Saturdays before 9am and after 1pm; and all other days between the hours of 8pm and 8am the following day. 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	Not Supported	Not Supported	Supported	Not Supported	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Not Supported	Not Supported	Supported	Supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	---	---	Yes	No	---
Provisioning time	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
UCS-2 support	N/A	N/A	Supported	Supported	N/A
Use case restrictions	N/A	N/A	Domestic numbers are not able to receive inbound messages from the Grapevine network in South Africa.	International longcode sender ID would be overwritten into a random local longcode outside Twilio's platform.	N/A
Best practices	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

	Alphanumeric - Pre-registration
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	---
Provisioning time	N/A
UCS-2 support	N/A
Use case restrictions	N/A
Best practices	N/A

	Alphanumeric - Dynamic
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Not Supported
Sender ID preserved	---
Provisioning time	N/A
UCS-2 support	N/A
Use case restrictions	N/A
Best practices	N/A

	Long Code - Domestic
Operator network capability	Supported
Twilio supported	Supported
Sender ID preserved	Yes
Provisioning time	N/A
UCS-2 support	Supported
Use case restrictions	Domestic numbers are not able to receive inbound messages from the Grapevine network in South Africa.
Best practices	N/A

	Long Code - International
Operator network capability	Not Supported
Twilio supported	Supported
Sender ID preserved	No
Provisioning time	N/A
UCS-2 support	Supported
Use case restrictions	International longcode sender ID would be overwritten into a random local longcode outside Twilio's platform.
Best practices	N/A

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

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.