SMS Country regulations and restrictions

China

Available countries

There are several carrier restrictions in place when sending messages to or from China, all of which can be viewed in the table below.

Clickatell strives to use only the best connectivity for delivery to China. To ensure optimal and high performance of our API platform and delivery of messages on a direct routing class, we may use up to three or four local providers or operator connections for delivery to Chinese operators.

It’s a good idea to work with a sales advisor to ensure compliance with all SMS regulations. Get in touch now and set up your messaging program with the help of our experts.

Restriction Description
DND exists No
Time restrictions No
International vs local split No
Local traffic N/A
International traffic N/A
General content restrictions
  • Promotional and transactional messages must be appended with a digital signature to identify the source of the message.
  • Each message must contain a preregistered signature in square brackets which represents a brand and is appended either at the beginning or at the end of the message, and this signature is customizable and affects the total character count. Once registered, signatures are added automatically, meaning that customers do not have to do anything on their side.
  • Signature can only contain letters and numbers; no punctuation or special characters.
  • Maximum of eight characters including the bracket.
  • Customers must register a dedicated signature and all message templates which should be completely related to their business before sending. GSM (ASCII) is no longer supported and only UCS2-encoded messages may be sent.
  • Content to be whitelisted by Chinese Telecom authorities.
  • All message templates must be submitted for whitelisting and approval prior to the launch of live traffic. This applies to all message types, including test ones. Failure to do this can result in traffic filtering or even blocking.
  • URLs are not permitted in messages and will be blocked.
  • To avoid spamming the end users, a maximum of roughly 3 messages with the same content or 15 messages with different contents can be sent to one single number within 24 hours. Messages exceeding this limit may be blocked by local mobile operators.
  • Register bulk content and get approval to terminate. Up to 65 characters for each non-concatenated SMS; up to 62 characters for each concatenated SMS.
  • Messages must be sent with Unicode to avoid content filtering and rejection by the Chinese operators.
  • Any messages containing adult, religious, and political messages will be blocked.
Content registration required Yes
To register content, the following is required:       
  • An SMS template with signature (the signature is related to the company name). 
  • Changeable parts (variables) within the content must be precisely defined. 
  • For variables, range is not supported and digits should be a maximum of six characters, or it will be rejected. 
  • Estimated traffic volumes. 
  • A Letter of Authorization (LOA).
Opt-out instructions required No
Sender ID regulations All sender IDs are overwritten with local long codes.
Sender ID registration offered by Clickatell Not supported
Sender ID documentation required N/A
Country supports MNP No

 

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