Safeguards
GCC compliance & coverage
Every Gulf country licenses SMS its own way, and the rules keep changing. OTPRelay holds the licences and pre-cleared the shared sender once, so you write no per-country code and file no registrations.
Each Gulf market runs its own licensing, operator onboarding, and sender clearance, and regulators tighten the rules regularly. Landing OTP traffic in every market means tracking all of that across several operators per country. OTPRelay did it ahead of time: we hold the licences, pre-registered the shared OTPRelay sender, and onboarded the operators. You register nothing.
Saudi Arabia is live today. The rest of the GCC is priced and rolling out as demand grows. The table below shows what we handle in each market - it maps the regulatory work behind the product, not a checklist for you. The single shared sender and fixed template are covered in Sender & message.
Coverage at a glance
"What OTPRelay handles" is the clearance we hold for that market. "Cleared in" is roughly how long that onboarding took us.
| Country | What OTPRelay handles | Status | Cleared in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | Pre-registration required; CST-licensed provider | Live | ~15 days |
| 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | Operator portal + consent; promo needs AD- prefix | Rolling out | ~2 weeks |
| 🇶🇦 Qatar | Sender-ID registration mandatory; unregistered blocked | Rolling out | ~2 weeks |
| 🇰🇼 Kuwait | Registration required for Ooredoo / Zain | Rolling out | ~4 weeks |
| 🇧🇭 Bahrain | No pre-registration; dynamic alphanumeric supported | Rolling out | ~immediate |
| 🇴🇲 Oman | Domestic + international pre-registration; operator NOC letters | Rolling out | ~14-18 days |
What each market actually demands, and what we cleared:
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (+966)
Saudi Arabia is one of the strictest markets we run. Sending A2P SMS into the Kingdom takes a CST General Class Licence and an SMS Service Permit, and SAMA requires financial institutions to use only CST-licensed providers. There are also content and URL rules on the message body, plus limits on who can originate domestic traffic. The OTPRelay sender is pre-cleared with the operators, so codes go out the day you get a key. Live today.
Cleared in: ~15 days.
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (+971)
The UAE clears senders through an operator portal with explicit consent handling, and operators keep transactional and promotional traffic on separate routes. Promotional senders need an AD- prefix and a 07:00-21:00 window; OTP is transactional, so neither applies. The portals have been paused before, which makes this the clearance that moves most - we ride that out instead of passing it on.
Cleared in: ~2 weeks.
🇶🇦 Qatar (+974)
Qatar makes sender registration mandatory and blocks unregistered senders outright - there is no quiet downgrade to a long code, so registration is the line between delivered and dropped. The OTPRelay sender is registered ahead of time.
Cleared in: ~2 weeks.
🇰🇼 Kuwait (+965)
Kuwait requires registration on both Ooredoo and Zain, and enforcement is tightening: from 15 September 2026, unregistered senders are blocked. The OTPRelay sender is already cleared on both, so nothing drops off on cutover day.
Cleared in: ~4 weeks.
🇧🇭 Bahrain (+973)
Bahrain has no pre-registration and allows dynamic alphanumeric senders, so it switches on almost immediately. It also makes a handy backup route while stricter markets finish clearing.
Cleared in: ~immediate.
🇴🇲 Oman (+968)
Oman wants domestic and international pre-registration plus operator NOC letters, so onboarding is paperwork-heavy. That is exactly the work worth clearing once centrally instead of every team chasing every operator. We handle the documents.
Cleared in: ~14-18 days.
How OTPRelay helps
OTPRelay holds the per-country licences, pre-registered the shared OTPRelay sender with every operator, and routes each code to the right operator for its destination. You call one send endpoint, the code goes out from the OTPRelay sender on the fixed template, and SMS failover covers routes and operators if one stops returning delivery receipts. When a regulator changes the rules, the change lands in OTPRelay, not in your code.
Because you register nothing, reaching a newly cleared market is a switch we flip, not paperwork on your side. Saudi Arabia is live now; the rest of the GCC follows as demand grows.
Rules change frequently