Yes. Starting 15th of December 2018, all operators have made it mandatory to pre-register the sender names for any type of traffic to Saudi Arabia (KSA). In order to register the name, following details are mandatory and should be submitted to the operator through Essentially Precise. Once submitted this can take 1 to 3 working days for approvals.
- NOC Letter
- Sender name
- Message template(s)
- Website address of the company
- Company name and address in KSA
You can download the NOC letter template from downloads section. Operators have blocked all the generic sender names and any SMS that needs to be terminated to KSA should have a valid Sender ID related to the company.
Messages template (samples) are provided to the operator in advance to make sure there is no misuse of the sender names or the SMS services. It is advised not to deviate much from the template shared or chances of the sender getting blocked are high.
For Marketing Messages, all the sender name should be appended with "-AD", thus leaving the total sender name length to 8 characters. Any marketing message send without "-AD" in the sender name will be considered as a violation and can lead to blocking of the sender name.
A basic and standard SMS text (1 credit) limits are as below (including spaces):
- English Message: 160 characters
- Arabic/Unicode Messages: 70 characters
- Sender Name: 11 characters
A2P or Application to Person are all messages that are terminated from an application (software, website, mobile apps, etc) to a mobile handset or received from the mobile to an application.
On the other hand, P2P or Person to Person (Peer to Peer) are all messages that are sent from one mobile phone to the other directly. These messages are initiated by humans and send manually.
Yes. The SMS sender name (title) can be of your company name provided it is within 11 character length. Example: ToBePrecise. Space is also considered a character.
For certain operators, there will be a prior registration / white listing that is required with certain documents like NOC, Trade License, Message samples etc. Once the details are submitted registration can take anywhere between 1 to 5 working days.
2-Way SMS allows customers to communicate back to your application or system. Helps customers to get information, provide details or request for a service. Highly used for Internet of Things (IoT).
2-Way SMS are facilitated using a short code (4 to 6 digit codes) or Long number which is connected directly to Precise SMS server. Messages thus received are routed to respective applications or forwarded to your back end systems.
As per the TRA rule in UAE, customers should be given provision to opt out from receiving any marketing SMS. Precise provides the Unsubscribe platform to all its customers using a short code or portal service. Apart from this customers can also opt out directly with Etisalat or DU operator.
If you are using our service to send marketing SMS, please do contact one of our support team to get the short code or website address to incorporate within your messages.
To add your number to the operators DND list, send a text message "B SHORTCODE/SENDER NAME" to "7726" number. Example: B TOBEPRECISE
To start receiving SMS from the blocked sender name, send a text message "U SHORTCODE/SENDER NAME" to "7726". Example: U TOBEPRECISE
At any time if you want to know all the sender names that were blocked for your number, send a text message "GET" to "7726".
* SMS to 7726 will be free of cost.
Customers have the option of adding their number into specific Operator's DND list by using the mobile application, calling the support center or by sending an SMS to a short code.
If you are a STC customer, send the text "3311" to "900". Your number will be blocked from all incoming A2P SMS. To unblock or to start receiving SMS send the text "3322" to "900".
If you are a ZAIN customer, send the text "DND" to "959". Your number will be blocked from all incoming A2P SMS. To unblock or to start receiving SMS send the text "Stop DND" to "959".
If you are a Mobily customer, send the text "STOP" to "60445" and to unblock send the text "Resume" to "60445".
Yes. We have developed easy to use APIs that can be used from your application to integrate SMS. These APIs are REST based protocols and can be integrated to any type of back end platforms. Visit Developers section to get more details on API, documentation and sample codes.
We also provide SMPP based connectivity that you can utilize if you already have SMS software that supports SMPP. You can use the same account for both SMPP and API based connectivity.
The limit is based on your account settings. If you are having a pre-paid account, then the limit will be based on the credit availability. For post-paid accounts the limit is based on the usage limit set on your account. Apart from the account limits, the total SMS limit is also dependable on the country to which you are sending. It varies between 50 to 600 SMS per second (TPS). For more details, please speak to one of our support team.
Yes. Essentially Precise SMS has good coverage in the Middle East and for other regions we work with our partners (1 hop). We cover more than 750 operators around the world. Once your account is setup the team can configure your account to send SMS to any part of the world within minutes. There can be delay in getting specific sender names ready depending on the targeted location.
As our service is mainly for corporate companies and involves large data, we do not recommend using a mobile application for bulk messaging purpose. For personal use we have a separate platform called www.smsarrow.com that has a mobile application.
We have covered the basic queries in our FAQ section under various categories. Our team will be more than happy to assist you with any queries that you may have on your account or related to setting up a new account.
You can use the Support section to reach us or email to support@tobeprecisesms.com. For any commercial queries, please use REACH US section and send your requirements and one of our team will get in touch with you at the earliest possible.
Rates vary depending on the geographical location and the volume. We offer a very competitive rates for Middle East regions due to our volume and long term relationship with the operators. Please speak to one of our representative with your requirement and we will be more than happy to share the rates and specifics.
All messages that are processed and submitted to the operators are chargeable irrespective of the final delivery. If a particular submission is getting rejected on Precise SMS server due to invalid formatting or if the number is part of the DND, then you will not be charged.
Yes. We can configure one or more email addresses to receive important notifications related to your SMS account. Daily, Weekly or Monthly summary reports can also be configured to the same email addresses. The main email address configured for the account will receive all other notifications related to SMS credits or account expiry.
Below are the various delivery report (DLR) status that will be available on our platform when an SMS is submitted.
- Sent: This is the status that is updated at our end when an SMS is submitted to the operator. This means that the SMS was well received on our server and processed. This report is not returned back as DLR
- Accepted: This is a response from certain operators stating that they have successfully accepted the message to forward to the mobile handset. Not all operators do provide this report.
- Delivered: This status means that the message was successfully delivered to the handset and got confirmation back. Only in rare cases where the operator implements Do Not Disturb (DND or Unsubscribe) list, they return the status as Delivered even if the number is present in DND.
- Error: This status means that we were not able to submit the particular message to the operator successfully or there was an error from the operators side in sending the message. This could be due to connectivity issues.
Operators will also return this status if the mobile number is incorrect (Length, code, etc). For example in UAE if we try to send an SMS with the code 97140XXXXX, then this will be returned as Error. - Undelivered: This status indicates that the particular message could not be delivered to the handset. The reason can vary from operator to operator. Various reasons for this are: Non existing number, Temporarily out of service, Disconnection due to non bill payment. Undelivered status is also returned by many of the operators who have DND features set and if the mobile number is in their DND list.
- Expired: Expired status means that the operator was not able to send the SMS to the recipient within the time frame specified. Timeframe varies from operator to operator and how we set during SMPP submission. This can be between 4 hours to 24 hours.
- Unsubscribed: This status is for those numbers that have requested directly through our platform to be Unsubscribed from any marketing SMS. If a number is present in the list, then they are automatically removed from the final broadcast. This list does not reflect any of the DND numbers from the operators.
This is very phone specific and nothing to do with how the sender name was registered or processed. Alphanumeric sender name (Sender ID) allows spaces in the name to provide proper meaning when customer receives the SMS. Some of the smart phones, including all Iphones (IOS), have started removing the spaces from the sender name. This means that if you have 2 or more words in the sender name separated by space, it will be combined as one word. For example, the sender name "TO BE PRCS" will appear as "TOBEPRCS" on these phones. To avoid confusion to the end customer in understanding the original sender, we recommend to Capitalize the first alphabet of each words (Example: "To Be Prcs" will become "ToBePrcs") or use "-" (hyphen) instead of spaces (example: "To-Be-Prcs") so that it is more readable to the end user.
Majority of the Android phones do support spaces in the sender ID and it is specific phones that removes the spaces.