United Kingdom

Before you start sending SMS messages to the United Kingdom, please ensure that you understand the regulations around messaging in the country. All programs are required to be compliant with the applicable laws. Please contact our support team if you are unsure about any of these regulations.

Restriction

Description

DND exists

Time restrictions

International vs local split

Local traffic

N/A

International traffic

N/A

General content restrictions

All content containing valid URLs must be whitelisted.
URL shorteners are not allowed and cannot be whitelisted. This rule is in force as spammers tend to use shorteners heavily.
No URL redirects allowed - the URL should link directly to a fully visible page.
A service legitimacy check of the website is performed to conclude if the service is legitimate.
All URLs to misleading pages will be rejected.

Content registration required

Yes

Opt-out instructions required

N/A

Sender ID regulations

Dynamic alpha is supported, however, please be aware that certain sender ID registration will become mandatory in the near future. Changes to Sender IDs effective 3 July 2023:

Numeric Sender IDs

Long numbers: Anything other than “+44xxxxx” will be blocked	Select and purchase a United Kingdom long number
Short Codes: Five digits starting with 6/7/8 will be permitted. All other short codes will be blocked	Apply for a United Kingdom short code

AlphaNumeric Sender IDs

Alpha sender IDs with certain special characters will be blocked

Examples: @, $,#

Permitted special characters for an alpha/alphanumeric sender (max length of 11 digits)

A to Z (uppercase)
a to z (lowercase)
0-9 (numeric)

Special Characters:

' ' (space)
'.' (full stop)
'&' (ampersand)
'_' (underscore)
'-' (dash/hyphen)

Brand Names are Permitted; however Generic Sender IDs will be blocked

Generic Sender ID examples: “SMS”, “INFO”, or “Alert” See below for generic terms that will be blocked.

Sender ID registration offered by Clickatell

Not supported

Country supports MNP

Yes

Including these generic terms as part of your sender ID is likely to block messages:

1TimePin , 2FA, Accept, Access, Account, Active, Admin, Advise, Alert, Allow, Allowance, App, Appointment, Approve, Approved, Auth, AuthMsg, Authorise, AuthSMS, Aware, Bank, Banking, Bill, Billing, Call, Card, Caution, Certify, Check, CloudOTP, Code, Collect, Collection, Confirm, Contact, Control, Courier, Delay, Deliver, Delivery, Discount, Energy, Fraud, Help, Info, InfoSMS, ISA, Key, Loan, Login, Logistics,, LogMeIn, Logon, Malware, Message, Mobile, Mortgage, MSG, MsgAuth, Network, NoReply, Notify, OneTimePin, Order, OTP, OTPSMS, Package, Parcel, Pay, Payment, Pin, PinCode, Post, Protocol, Purchase, Ratify, Rebate, Receipt, Refund, Reminder, Repayment, Reply, Respond, Save, Saving, Scam, Savings, Schedule, Secure, Security, Service, Shipping, Sign, Signin, Signon, SMS, SMSAuth, SMSCode, SMSlnfo, SMSOTP, SMSVerfiy, Support, System, Text, Trace, Track, Tracking, Trust, TXT, Update, Updates, Validate, Verify, VerifySMS, VerifyMe, Virus, Warn, Warning, Winner.