SMS compliance in Bahrain

The rules that apply to business SMS sent to numbers in Bahrain, with the source for each.

Quiet hours

Bulk promotional SMS restricted to a daytime window set by TRA; avoid night sending.

Source: TRA Bahrain regulation (confirm current window)

Consent

Prior consent required; opt-in for promotional messages.

Source: Law 30 of 2018 (PDPL)

Opt-out

Promotional SMS must offer a free, simple opt-out (e.g., reply STOP); honour requests promptly and suppress opted-out numbers.

Source: Operator/aggregator policy (best practice)

Prohibited content

Blocked: gambling/betting, alcohol, adult/dating, political and religious content, content offensive to public morals or Islam, phishing/fraud, unlicensed financial/crypto offers, URL shorteners.

Source: Operator content policies / national advertising law

Data protection law

Law 30 of 2018 (PDPL). Supervisory authority: Personal Data Protection Authority.

Source: Law 30 of 2018 (PDPL)

Sender ID rule

Alphanumeric SID (max 11 chars) supported; pre-registration required on some or all networks; generic SIDs (INFO, SMS, ALERT) blocked. See SenderID sheet.

Source: Operator rules (see SenderID sheet)

Other

Classify traffic as promotional or transactional; OTP/transactional must not contain marketing content; use local language or Unicode where required.

Source: Industry practice

This summary is guidance, not legal advice. Last verified 23 October 2026.