Oman’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has introduced new rules governing promotional and service calls, SMS and value-added services, including restrictions on contact hours, clearer caller identification, easier consumer opt-outs and stronger obligations on telecom operators to detect and block spam and fraud.
Under the regulations, promotional calls and messages may only be sent between 8am and 9pm Oman time, while businesses must use identifiable sender information and telecom operators must provide users with mechanisms to block unwanted communications.
Entities covered by the rules have six months to bring their operations into compliance.
Promotional calls limited to 8am to 9pm
The new rules restrict promotional calls and messages to a defined daily window between 8am and 9pm.
An exception applies where a message was sent during the permitted period but delivered later because of a technical delay.
The measure is intended to reduce intrusive marketing outside normal daytime and evening hours while creating a clearer regulatory standard for businesses using telecom channels for promotion.
Sender IDs and caller names must be clearer
The regulations also introduce stricter identity requirements for businesses contacting customers.
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.
Businesses are also prohibited from using telephone numbers registered in individuals’ names for promotional, service or value-added calls.
These requirements are intended to make it easier for recipients to understand who is contacting them and reduce the use of anonymous or misleading numbers.
Consumers gain broader opt-out controls
Licensed telecom operators must provide clear mechanisms allowing users to block promotional calls, promotional messages and value-added services.
Customers must be able to block communications from all senders or selectively block specific sender IDs and short codes.
They must also have the ability to report continued contact after opting out and to reactivate communications later if they choose.
Operators are required to establish a unified database to manage these preferences and ensure that opt-out requests are applied consistently.
Operators face stronger anti-fraud obligations
The regulations place greater responsibility on telecom operators to prevent harmful communications before they reach users.
Licensees must deploy systems capable of identifying and blocking suspected fraudulent or intrusive calls and messages, 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 reporting mechanism for customers to flag suspicious communications.
This shifts part of the responsibility for spam and fraud prevention away from individual users and toward the network layer.
Fines can reach RO30,000
Penalties vary depending on the type of violation and can reach RO30,000 for certain breaches.
Fines may be doubled where the same offence is repeated within one year.
Other violations may be calculated per sender ID or per day, increasing the potential financial impact of persistent non-compliance.
The six-month transition period gives operators and businesses time to update systems, sender identification practices, databases and customer-control mechanisms before enforcement begins.
