Benin (BJ)

Locale name

Benin

ISO code
The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.

BJ

Region

Middle East & Africa

Mobile country code
A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.

616

Dialing code
The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.

+229

Two-way SMS supported
Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.

No

Number portability available
Whether number portability is available in the given locale.

No

Twilio concatenated message support
Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one. 

Yes*
For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.

Message length
How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.

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Twilio MMS support
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.

Converted to SMS with embedded URL

Sending SMS to landline numbers
How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.

You cannot send SMS to a landline destination number: the Twilio REST API will throw a 400 response with error code 21614, the message will not appear in the logs, and the account will not be charged.

Compliance considerations
Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.

Starting November 30, 2024, Benin is changing their national phone number format. The old 8-digit format (after the country code) will switch to a 10-digit format to meet the growing demand for numbers. Here's how the numbering format will look:

• Current format: +229 XXXXXXXX
• New format starting November 30, 2024: +229 01XXXXXXXX

You can continue to use the old 8-digit format until December 29, 2024. After this date you must use the 10-digit format to send SMS messages to Benin; any messages sent using the old 8-digit format won't be delivered

Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. The following are some general best practices:

1. Get opt-in consent from each end user before sending any communication to them, particular for marketing or other non-essential communications.
2. Only communicate during an end user's daytime hours unless it is urgent.
3. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end user's local language.
4. Do not contact end users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Required

There is no segregation between International and Domestic Traffic

Not Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Supported
Learn more and register via the Console

Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

Yes

Yes

Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

3 weeks

N/A

UCS-2 support

Supported

Supported

Use case restrictions

For MTN network specifically, Alphanumeric Sender IDs are only supported through pre-registration.

Promotional content is not allowed to be registered

N/A

Best practices

Please refrain from requesting generic sender IDs to avoid being blocked by network operators.

N/A

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Not Supported

Not Supported

Not Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

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Supported

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Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

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Yes

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Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

N/A

N/A

N/A

UCS-2 support

N/A

Supported

N/A

Use case restrictions

N/A

Numeric International sender ID is not supported to the MTN network in Benin. Messages submitted with numeric would result in delivery failure. Send only with alphanumeric sender ID to this network.

N/A

Best practices

N/A

N/A

N/A