Muscat – Promotional calls and messages in Oman will be restricted to between 8am and 9pm under new telecom regulations that also require clearer caller identification, easier opt-outs and stronger systems to combat spam and fraud.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued regulations governing promotional and service calls and SMS, as well as value-added services, introducing tighter obligations on telecom operators and businesses using such channels to reach customers. Entities covered by the regulations have six months to bring their operations into compliance.

Under the rules, promotional calls and messages may only be made or sent between 8am and 9pm Oman time. An exception applies where a message was sent within the permitted period but delivery was delayed due to a technical reason.

Businesses will also have to make their identity clearer to recipients. Promotional SMS sender IDs must reflect the commercial or legal name of the sender and begin with ‘AD’.

For promotional, service, value-added and automated calls, caller identification must display the commercial or legal name of the company or entity making the call. The regulations also prohibit the use of telephone numbers registered in individuals’ names for promotional, service or value-added calls.

The rules give consumers the option to stop unwanted communications. Licensed operators must provide a clear mechanism allowing users to block promotional calls and messages or value-added services, either from all senders or selected sender IDs and short codes. Users must also be able to report continued contact after opting out and reactivate such communications if they later choose to do so. Operators are required to establish a unified database to implement these requests.

The regulations place greater responsibility on operators to tackle fraudulent and intrusive communications.

Licensees must deploy systems capable of identifying and blocking suspected fraudulent or intrusive calls and messages before they reach users, including traffic originating outside Oman. They must also use behavioural monitoring to detect fraud patterns, share relevant information through a common database and provide a unified mechanism for customers to report suspicious communications.

Penalties vary according to the violation and can reach RO30,000 for certain breaches. Fines may be doubled when the same offence is repeated within one year. Other violations carry penalties calculated per sender ID or per day.