French Polynesia (France) SMS Best Practices, Compliance, and Features

French Polynesia SMS Market Overview

Market Conditions: French Polynesia operates under French telecommunications regulations while maintaining distinct market characteristics. Local operators dominate the mobile market and provide SMS services across the territory's 118 islands. OTT messaging apps are gaining popularity, but SMS remains crucial due to its reliability across the archipelago's dispersed geography.

Primary Mobile Operators:

• Vini (operated by OPT – Office des Postes et Télécommunications) – the largest telecommunications provider in French Polynesia, offering mobile, fixed-line, and internet services across the islands
• Vodafone French Polynesia – secondary mobile operator providing competitive services

Infrastructure: The Honotua submarine fiber optic cable (commissioned 2010) connects Tahiti to Hawaii, providing 20 Gbps capacity and extending connectivity to Moorea and the Leeward Islands (Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora). This infrastructure supports reliable SMS delivery across the dispersed island geography.

SMS Features and Technical Capabilities in French Polynesia

French Polynesia supports basic SMS functionality with limitations on advanced features like concatenation and two-way messaging.

Two-Way SMS Support

French Polynesia networks do not support two-way SMS. Send messages only one-way from business to consumer.

Note: Verify technical capabilities with your SMS provider (Twilio, Sinch, MessageBird, Plivo) for French Polynesia (country code +689, MCC 547) before implementation. Feature availability varies by carrier and messaging provider.

Concatenated Messages (Segmented SMS)

Support: French Polynesia does not support concatenated messages.

Message length rules: Keep messages within standard SMS character limits:

• 160 characters for GSM-7 encoding
• 70 characters for messages containing special characters (UCS-2)

Encoding considerations: Use GSM-7 for standard messages and UCS-2 when Tahitian characters are required.

MMS Support

French Polynesia automatically converts MMS messages to SMS with an embedded URL link to access the multimedia content. This ensures message delivery while providing access to rich media through web links.

Recipient Phone Number Compatibility

Number Portability

French Polynesia does not support number portability. Phone numbers remain tied to their original mobile network operators.

Sending SMS to Landlines

French Polynesia does not support sending SMS to landline numbers. Attempts to send messages to landline numbers return a 400 error (code 21614) with no charges applied to your account.

GDPR and ARCEP Compliance Requirements for French Polynesia SMS

French Polynesia follows French national telecommunications laws while maintaining territorial specifications. The primary regulatory bodies include:

• ARCEP (Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques, des postes et de la distribution de la presse) – France's telecommunications regulator overseeing electronic communications (arcep.fr)
• CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés) – France's data protection authority enforcing GDPR and French data privacy law (cnil.fr)
• DGEN (Direction générale de l'économie numérique) – French Polynesia's local digital economy authority (service-public.pf/dgen)

Consent and Opt-In Requirements

Explicit Consent Requirements (per GDPR Article 7):

• Obtain written or electronic consent before sending marketing messages
• Ensure consent is freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous
• Maintain proof that you obtained consent
• Make withdrawing consent as easy as giving it
• Keep consent records for audit purposes (consult legal counsel for specific retention periods)

Documentation Requirements:

• Store consent timestamps
• Record consent collection methods
• Maintain opt-in proof for compliance audits

HELP/STOP and Other Commands

• Include clear opt-out instructions in all marketing messages
• Support STOP ("STOP pour désabonner") in French
• Support AIDE (HELP) commands in French
• Consider Tahitian language options for local accessibility

Do Not Call / Do Not Disturb Registries

French Polynesia doesn't maintain a separate Do Not Call registry. Businesses must:

• Honor all opt-out requests immediately
• Maintain internal suppression lists
• Remove unsubscribed numbers within 24 hours
• Document all opt-out requests for compliance

Note on Bloctel: France's national Do Not Call registry (Bloctel) applies to metropolitan France. French Polynesia, as an overseas collectivity, is not covered by Bloctel. GDPR Article 21 grants individuals the right to object to direct marketing at any time – honor this right.

Time Zone Sensitivity

Sending Windows:

• Send between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM FPT (French Polynesia Time, UTC-10)
• Avoid sending between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM FPT
• Respect local holidays and cultural events (Heiva festival in July, Bastille Day on July 14, Internal Autonomy Day on June 29)
• Emergency messages are exempt from time restrictions

Time Zone Context: French Polynesia uses UTC-10, which is 12 hours behind Paris (UTC+1/+2) and 2–3 hours behind US Pacific Time depending on daylight saving.

French Polynesia Phone Number Format and Validation (+689)

French Polynesia Phone Number Format:

• Country Code: +689
• NSN Length: 8 digits (6 digits for landlines, 8 digits for mobile)
• E.164 Format: +689XXXXXXXX (mobile)
• Mobile Prefixes: 87, 88, 89 (verify with current carrier allocations)
• Validation Regex: ^\+689[0-9]{6,8}$ for E.164 format, or ^[0-9]{6,8}$ for local format

Alphanumeric Sender ID

Operator network capability: Supported

Registration requirements: Use dynamically without pre-registration

Sender ID preservation: Sender IDs are typically preserved as sent

Long Codes

Domestic vs. International:

• Domestic long codes: Supported by operators but not available through major providers
• International long codes: Limited support

Sender ID preservation: Original sender ID typically preserved

Provisioning time: N/A for domestic; varies for international

Use cases: Transactional messaging, customer support

Short Codes

Support: French Polynesia does not support short codes

Provisioning time: N/A

Use cases: N/A

Restricted SMS Content, Industries, and Use Cases

Restricted Industries:

• Gambling and betting services (restricted under French law)
• Adult content and services
• Unauthorized financial services (comply with French financial regulations)
• Prescription medications (pharmaceutical advertising restrictions apply)
• Political messaging without proper disclaimers (include sender identification per French electoral law)

GDPR Compliance Note: All SMS marketing requires a lawful basis under GDPR Article 6. For direct marketing, consent (Article 6(1)(a)) or legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) may apply. Recipients maintain the right to object under Article 21.

Content Filtering

Known Carrier Rules:

• Carriers may block messages containing certain keywords
• Use URLs from reputable domains
• Avoid excessive punctuation and special characters
• Spam filters may block messages with high-risk financial terms or promotional language

Best Practices to Avoid Filtering:

• Use clear, professional language
• Avoid URL shorteners (use full, branded URLs)
• Include legitimate business identifiers
• Maintain consistent sending patterns
• Ensure sender ID matches your registered business name when possible

Best Practices for Sending SMS in French Polynesia (France)

Messaging Strategy

• Keep messages under 160 characters
• Include clear calls-to-action
• Personalize messages with recipient names when possible
• Maintain consistent sender IDs

Sending Frequency and Timing

• Limit to 2–3 messages per week per recipient
• Respect local holidays and weekends
• Consider time zones across different islands
• Space out bulk campaigns to avoid network congestion

Localization

• Support both French and Tahitian languages
• Consider cultural sensitivities
• Use appropriate date and time formats
• Include local contact information

Opt-Out Management

• Process opt-outs within 24 hours
• Maintain centralized opt-out databases
• Include clear opt-out instructions in every message
• Confirm opt-out requests with acknowledgment messages

Testing and Monitoring

• Test messages across major local carriers
• Monitor delivery rates by carrier
• Track opt-out rates and patterns
• Review message performance metrics regularly

SMS API Integration Examples for French Polynesia

Twilio SMS API for French Polynesia

Twilio provides a robust SMS API for sending messages to French Polynesia. Integration requires your Account SID and Auth Token for authentication.

import * as Twilio from 'twilio';

// Initialize the Twilio client
const client = new Twilio(
  process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID,    // Your Account SID
  process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN      // Your Auth Token
);

// Function to send SMS to French Polynesia
async function sendSMSToFrenchPolynesia(
  to: string,
  message: string,
  senderId: string
) {
  try {
    const response = await client.messages.create({
      to: `+689${to}`,              // French Polynesia prefix
      from: senderId,               // Your sender ID
      body: message,                // Message content
      statusCallback: 'https://your-callback-url.com/status'  // Optional status updates
    });

    console.log(`Message sent successfully: ${response.sid}`);
    return response;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error sending message:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

Sinch SMS API for French Polynesia

Sinch offers SMS capabilities with straightforward integration using their SDK.

import { SinchClient } from '@sinch/sdk-core';

// Initialize Sinch client
const sinchClient = new SinchClient({
  projectId: process.env.SINCH_PROJECT_ID,
  apiToken: process.env.SINCH_API_TOKEN
});

// Function to send SMS via Sinch
async function sendSinchSMS(
  phoneNumber: string,
  message: string
) {
  try {
    const response = await sinchClient.sms.batches.send({
      to: [`+689${phoneNumber}`],    // French Polynesia number
      from: "YourBrand",             // Alphanumeric sender ID
      body: message,
      delivery_report: 'summary'      // Request delivery report
    });

    console.log(`Batch ID: ${response.id}`);
    return response;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Sinch SMS Error:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

MessageBird SMS API for French Polynesia

MessageBird provides a simple API for sending SMS messages to French Polynesia.

import messagebird from 'messagebird';

// Initialize MessageBird client
const mbClient = messagebird(process.env.MESSAGEBIRD_API_KEY);

// Function to send SMS via MessageBird
function sendMessageBirdSMS(
  to: string,
  message: string,
  senderId: string
): Promise<any> {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    mbClient.messages.create({
      originator: senderId,          // Your sender ID
      recipients: [`+689${to}`],     // French Polynesia number
      body: message,
      datacoding: 'auto'             // Automatic character encoding
    }, (err, response) => {
      if (err) {
        reject(err);
      } else {
        resolve(response);
      }
    });
  });
}

Plivo SMS API for French Polynesia

Plivo offers SMS capabilities with comprehensive delivery reporting.

import plivo from 'plivo';

// Initialize Plivo client
const plivoClient = new plivo.Client(
  process.env.PLIVO_AUTH_ID,
  process.env.PLIVO_AUTH_TOKEN
);

// Function to send SMS via Plivo
async function sendPlivoSMS(
  to: string,
  message: string,
  senderId: string
) {
  try {
    const response = await plivoClient.messages.create({
      src: senderId,                // Your sender ID
      dst: `+689${to}`,            // French Polynesia number
      text: message,
      url_status_callback: 'https://your-status-callback.com'
    });

    console.log('Message sent:', response);
    return response;
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Plivo Error:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

API Rate Limits and Throughput

• Default rate limit: 1 message per second per destination
• Batch sending: Maximum 500 recipients per batch
• Daily sending limits may apply based on account type

Strategies for Large-Scale Sending:

• Implement queuing system for high-volume campaigns
• Use batch APIs when available
• Schedule messages across multiple time windows
• Monitor delivery rates and adjust sending speed

Error Handling and Reporting

Common Error Codes:

• 21614: Invalid landline number
• 21408: Invalid sender ID
• 21211: Invalid phone number

Logging Best Practices:

• Log all API responses
• Track delivery receipts
• Monitor bounce rates
• Implement retry logic for failed messages

GDPR-Compliant Logging: When logging SMS transactions, follow data minimization principles (GDPR Article 5(1)(c)):

• Log message metadata (timestamp, status, message ID) but avoid logging full message content unless required for legitimate business purposes
• Implement log retention policies (typically 30–90 days for operational logs)
• Pseudonymize or hash phone numbers in long-term logs
• Ensure logs are secured and access-controlled per GDPR Article 32

Error Handling Strategy:

• For error 21614 (landline attempts): Validate phone number type before sending to avoid charges
• For error 21408 (invalid sender ID): Use alphanumeric IDs 3–11 characters, no special characters
• For error 21211 (invalid number): Validate E.164 format (+689XXXXXXXX) before API calls
• Implement exponential backoff for temporary failures (rate limits, network issues)

French Polynesia SMS Implementation Checklist

Key Takeaways:

• Ensure compliance with French privacy laws and local regulations
• Implement proper consent management
• Respect sending windows (8:00 AM – 8:00 PM FPT)
• Use appropriate character encoding for local languages

Next Steps:

1. Review ARCEP guidelines for SMS messaging
2. Implement consent collection mechanisms
3. Set up delivery monitoring systems
4. Test message delivery across different carriers

Additional Resources:

• ARCEP Official Website
• CNIL Data Privacy Guidelines
• French Polynesia Telecommunications Authority
• E.164 phone number format guide
• GDPR SMS compliance best practices

Industry Resources:

• Mobile Operator Guidelines
• SMS Best Practices Documentation
• Local Compliance Frameworks