El Salvador SMS Guide: Sender IDs, Consent & Route Policy

At a glance

A quick operational read on El Salvador. Anything marked route-dependent is decided by the supplier and operator path your traffic uses. Anything marked law applies whichever supplier you pick.

Number format: +503 followed by an eight-digit national access number, including the national destination code; there is no domestic trunk prefix to add or strip
Mobile numbering: Under SIGET's current 2025 numbering plan the mobile national destination codes are 5, 6 and 7, structured 5XYZ-MCDU, 6XYZ-MCDU and 7XYZ-MCDU
Fixed and reserved codes: The fixed-line national destination code is 2; codes 3 and 4 are reserved for future use
Number portability: SIGET describes number portability as a user right applying nationwide to fixed and mobile numbers, prepaid and postpaid, letting the user change operator and keep the number
Phone numbers are personal data: Article 4 of the Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales defines contact channels, expressly including the telephone number, as personal data
Direct-marketing objection right: Article 12 lets the data subject demand that processing stop, including profiling or classifications for commercial or direct-marketing purposes, subject to the law's stated exceptions
Consumer advertising duties: Article 30 of the Ley de Protección al Consumidor requires promotions and special offers to state their conditions, total price and duration, and article 31 prohibits misleading, false or illicit advertising
Mobile country code: Mobile country code 706
Two-way SMS: Not supported on Twilio's current El Salvador route; the route is one-way
Number portability on route: Twilio marks number portability as available in El Salvador
Concatenation: Twilio marks concatenation as supported with a caveat, and actual behaviour depends on the sender type and encoding you use
MMS: Twilio converts MMS into an SMS containing a URL
SMS to fixed line: Delivery to Salvadoran landline numbers is unsupported and the request is rejected with an API error
Preregistered alphanumeric sender: Preserved on Twilio's selected preregistered path, and preregistration is supported only towards Claro El Salvador
Dynamic alphanumeric sender: Not preserved; the route may overwrite it with a short code, and non-registered alphanumeric delivery to Claro is best-effort
International numeric sender: Supported by Twilio but not preserved; it is rewritten outside Twilio into a short code or a long code
Domestic long code: Operator-capable in El Salvador, but not supported by Twilio's current service
Dedicated or local short code: Operator-capable in El Salvador, but not offered by Twilio's current service
Unicode / UCS-2: Supported on the documented sender types: preregistered alphanumeric, dynamic alphanumeric and international numeric
Number validation: Validate 5, 6 and 7 as current mobile national destination codes and reject stale validation that accepts only 6 and 7
Network resolution: Resolve the live destination network with a lookup or supplier routing intelligence rather than inferring the operator from the leading digit
Permission standard: Send promotional SMS only on prior express, specific, attributable and SMS-channel-specific permission
Opt-out standard: Offer a free and simple opt-out that does not depend on a reply, because the route is one-way
Suppression standard: Suppress immediately across every list, sender and sending system as our own higher operating standard, separate from the statutory revocation process
Contact timing standard: Send promotional traffic in recipient-local daytime hours as our operating standard, not as a statutory window
Segment discipline: Keep critical OTP and service copy inside a single segment where practical, because concatenation support varies by sender type and encoding
Last reviewed: 17 August 2026

Route-dependent: “Route-dependent” means the behaviour is decided by the supplier and operator path your traffic takes, not by Salvadoran law. Two providers can behave differently on the same day and a route can change its policy without notice. Numbering, portability as a user right, the personal-data law and consumer-advertising duties, by contrast, are regulation and apply to every route.

Law, route policy and recommendation

El Salvador now has a general personal-data statute alongside an active numbering and portability framework, so the legal layer is real. Most of the constraints that break launches, though, are still route policy — and the controls we ask for sit above both.

Law / regulation
Salvadoran law and regulation
SIGET administers the national numbering plan for country code +503 and the number-portability framework. Decreto Legislativo No. 144, the Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales, was published on 15 November 2024 and entered into force eight days after publication; it applies to natural and legal persons in the public and private sector, treats telephone numbers as personal data and gives data subjects ARCO-POL rights including objection to direct marketing. The Ley de Protección al Consumidor requires complete information on promotions and prohibits misleading, false or illicit advertising. It is a general personal-data and consumer framework, not an SMS-specific telecom marketing code.
Carrier or route policy
Supplier and carrier route policy
Whether your sender survives, whether a reply can reach you and whether a long message concatenates cleanly are decided by the supplier and operator path. On Twilio's current El Salvador route, two-way SMS is not supported, number portability is marked available, concatenation is marked supported with a sender-type and encoding caveat, MMS is converted into an SMS containing a URL, delivery to landlines is unsupported, preregistered alphanumeric senders are preserved only towards Claro El Salvador, dynamic alphanumeric senders are not preserved and may be overwritten with a short code, and an international numeric sender is rewritten outside Twilio into a short code or long code. Another supplier can differ on any of these on the same day.
Flowstates recommendation
Flowstates recommendation
We ask for validation that accepts the current 5, 6 and 7 mobile ranges, live network resolution instead of prefix inference, prior express and channel-specific permission for promotional SMS, a free opt-out that never depends on a reply, immediate suppression across every system, recipient-local daytime sending and single-segment discipline for anything time-critical. These are our operating standards, held above the statutory floor, not restatements of Salvadoran law.

Numbering and networks

Get the numbering right before you debug delivery. The single most common El Salvador defect we see is a validator written before the 2025 plan that still rejects mobile numbers beginning with 5.

Law / regulationCountry code
El Salvador uses country code +503.
Law / regulationNumber length
National access numbers are eight digits, including the national destination code.
Law / regulationMobile ranges
Under SIGET's current 2025 Plan de Numeración the mobile national destination codes are 5, 6 and 7, with the structures 5XYZ-MCDU, 6XYZ-MCDU and 7XYZ-MCDU.
Law / regulationFixed-line range
The fixed-line national destination code is 2.
Law / regulationReserved codes
National destination codes 3 and 4 are reserved for future use.
Law / regulationNo trunk prefix
There is no domestic trunk prefix in the Salvadoran plan, so nothing is added or stripped in front of the eight national digits.
Law / regulationInternational prefix
The international dialling prefix published in the SIGET plan is 00.
Law / regulationPortability as a user right
SIGET describes number portability as a user right that applies nationwide to fixed and mobile numbers, prepaid and postpaid, allowing the user to change operator and keep the number.
Carrier or route policyPortability on route
Twilio marks number portability as available in El Salvador on its current route.
Carrier or route policyFixed-line destinations
Twilio's current route does not support SMS to Salvadoran landline numbers and rejects those requests with an API error.
Flowstates recommendationE.164 normalisation
Normalise every destination to E.164 as +503 followed by the eight national digits before submitting it to an A2P API, even though the national plan publishes 00 as the international dialling prefix.
Flowstates recommendationValidator refresh
Update any validator, allow-list, regex or analytics rule that accepts only 6 and 7 as mobile ranges. That logic is stale under the 2025 plan and will silently drop legitimate 5-series mobile destinations.
Flowstates recommendationFixed-line filtering
Filter numbers beginning with 2 out of A2P mobile campaigns before submission; a fixed number is not a mobile A2P destination.
Flowstates recommendationOperator resolution
Because portability is active, the leading digit cannot be relied on to identify the current operator. Use a current network lookup or your supplier's routing intelligence before making any route-specific decision.
Flowstates recommendationRange testing
Test destinations across the 5, 6 and 7 ranges and across the main networks before scaling, rather than validating one range and assuming the rest behave identically.

E.164 example

+503 5XXX XXXX / +503 6XXX XXXX / +503 7XXX XXXX

A domestic form written as 5XXX XXXX, 6XXX XXXX or 7XXX XXXX becomes +503 followed by those same eight digits. There is no trunk zero to remove. A number beginning with 2 is a fixed line, not a mobile A2P destination.

SenderID options

Sender presentation in El Salvador is decided by the selected route and the destination network. Nothing below describes a universal Salvadoran sender behaviour: each row is the behaviour of a selected supplier path.

Carrier or route policy

Every field in this table is carrier or route behaviour on a selected supplier path, and it varies by supplier and by destination network. None of it is Salvadoran law, and none of it should be read as a general Salvadoran sender rule. Commercial and provisioning detail is handled privately during onboarding rather than published here.

Preregistered alphanumeric sender for Claro

Best for: Brand-visible traffic to Claro El Salvador destinations on the selected provider path that supports sender preregistration
Recipient sees: On that selected preregistered Claro path the approved brand sender is preserved; no other Salvadoran operator path is covered by it
Replies: Not supported on that route

Dynamic alphanumeric sender

Best for: Not recommended; included because traffic often defaults into it when no preregistration exists
Recipient sees: Operator networks do not support dynamic alphanumeric preservation, so the route may substitute a short code and the submitted sender is not preserved; non-registered alphanumeric delivery towards Claro is best-effort
Replies: Not supported on that route

International numeric sender

Best for: Traffic that must terminate where a preregistered alphanumeric sender is unavailable
Recipient sees: The route rewrites the sender outside Twilio into a short code or a long code; the submitted number is not preserved
Replies: Not supported on that route

Dedicated or local short code

Best for: A selected domestic programme that needs a stable short origin where operator and supplier support exists
Recipient sees: A short numeric origin tied to that selected programme; operators are capable of it, but Twilio's current service does not offer it
Replies: Programme and route dependent in general, and unavailable on the current Twilio route unless confirmed

SenderID options
Option	Best for	Recipient sees	Replies
Preregistered alphanumeric sender for Claro	Brand-visible traffic to Claro El Salvador destinations on the selected provider path that supports sender preregistration	On that selected preregistered Claro path the approved brand sender is preserved; no other Salvadoran operator path is covered by it	Not supported on that route
Dynamic alphanumeric sender	Not recommended; included because traffic often defaults into it when no preregistration exists	Operator networks do not support dynamic alphanumeric preservation, so the route may substitute a short code and the submitted sender is not preserved; non-registered alphanumeric delivery towards Claro is best-effort	Not supported on that route
International numeric sender	Traffic that must terminate where a preregistered alphanumeric sender is unavailable	The route rewrites the sender outside Twilio into a short code or a long code; the submitted number is not preserved	Not supported on that route
Dedicated or local short code	A selected domestic programme that needs a stable short origin where operator and supplier support exists	A short numeric origin tied to that selected programme; operators are capable of it, but Twilio's current service does not offer it	Programme and route dependent in general, and unavailable on the current Twilio route unless confirmed

Confirm the actual visible sender, and the fallback behaviour when the primary route is unavailable, before you launch. A fallback route that silently substitutes a short code will break OTP recognition and brand trust even when delivery reports look healthy.

What changes by traffic type

OTP, transactional and marketing traffic fail in different ways in El Salvador. Split them across routes, templates and permission records rather than running one blended stream.

OTP and authentication

Short-lived codes where a rewritten sender or an unexpected split costs you conversions, not just deliveries.

Carrier or route policy
Two-way SMS is not supported on Twilio's current El Salvador route.
Carrier or route policy
The visible sender can be rewritten: a dynamic alphanumeric sender may be replaced by a short code, and an international numeric sender is rewritten outside Twilio.
Carrier or route policy
Concatenation is marked supported with a caveat, so its behaviour depends on the sender type and encoding in use.
Flowstates recommendation
Put the code early in the message and keep promotional content out of it.
Flowstates recommendation
Identify the brand and the purpose in the message body, because the visible sender may not be yours.
Flowstates recommendation
Include a clear expiry cue so the recipient knows how long the code is valid.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep the message inside a single segment where practical rather than relying on concatenation.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not design an OTP flow that depends on the recipient replying.
Flowstates recommendation
Measure completion rate and delivery latency by network and by route rather than in aggregate, so a single-network sender problem is visible early.

Transactional and service

Messages the recipient expects because of something they already did with you.

Carrier or route policy
MMS is converted into an SMS containing a URL on Twilio's current El Salvador route.
Carrier or route policy
Delivery to Salvadoran fixed lines is unsupported on that route.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep the purpose expected and tied to the existing relationship or the lawful basis you actually rely on.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not blend promotional copy into service templates to avoid the discipline you would apply to marketing.
Flowstates recommendation
Identify the brand and the purpose in the message body.
Flowstates recommendation
Use branded short domains rather than public or shared shorteners so the link matches the brand in the body.
Flowstates recommendation
Test the 5, 6 and 7 ranges and the main networks before scaling service traffic.

Marketing and promotional

Promotional traffic where the personal-data law, consumer-advertising duties and a one-way route all shape the design.

Law / regulation
Processing needs a lawful basis under article 5 of the Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales, and article 12 gives the data subject the right to demand that processing stop, including profiling or classifications for commercial or direct-marketing purposes.
Law / regulation
Article 30 of the Ley de Protección al Consumidor requires promotions and special offers to state their conditions, total price or the elements that make it determinable, and their duration, and article 31 prohibits misleading, false or illicit advertising.
Flowstates recommendation
Use a clear express SMS permission as our standard unless your counsel has documented another lawful basis for that specific programme.
Flowstates recommendation
Identify the sending brand and the purpose in the message body, because the visible sender may be rewritten.
Carrier or route policy
The current route is one-way, so a reply-based opt-out keyword cannot be relied on.
Flowstates recommendation
Offer a free opt-out that does not depend on a reply: a link, an account setting, a web form, an email address or another accessible mechanism.
Flowstates recommendation
Suppress every opt-out immediately across all sending systems as our own operating standard.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep offer terms accurate, complete and non-misleading in the message and on the landing page.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not use purchased or rented lists.

El Salvador privacy, data-protection and direct-marketing position

El Salvador enacted a general personal-data statute in late 2024. It is a data-protection and direct-marketing framework, not an SMS-specific telecom marketing code, so it tells you how recipient data must be handled and what rights the recipient can exercise — while sender behaviour, keywords and reply handling remain route questions.

Law / regulation
Decreto Legislativo No. 144, the Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales, was published on 15 November 2024, and article 64 provides that it enters into force eight days after publication in the Diario Oficial.
Law / regulation
Articles 1 and 2 set the object of the law and give it broad scope: it applies to any natural or legal person, public or private, carrying out activities related to the processing of personal data.
Law / regulation
Article 4, literal f, defines personal data to include contact channels, expressly naming the telephone number and the electronic address.
Law / regulation
Article 4, literal d, defines consent as a free, specific, informed, express and individualised expression of the data subject's will, given by a declaration or a clear affirmative action.
Law / regulation
Article 5, literal c, sets out the consent and purpose principle, covering the purpose of the processing and the period for which data is stored and processed.
Law / regulation
Article 5, literal g, the lawfulness principle, recognises several lawful bases: consent, performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps, compliance with a legal obligation, protection of vital interests, a public-interest task or the exercise of public powers, and the legitimate interests of the controller where they do not override the data subject's rights. Not every SMS is therefore consent-only as a matter of statute.
Law / regulation
Article 7 requires prior information at collection, including who holds the data and how to exercise rights; where a purpose other than the one the data was collected for is proposed, the data subject must be informed and a new authorisation must be obtained.
Law / regulation
Article 12 gives the data subject the right to request that processing of their personal data cease, including profiling or classifications for commercial or direct-marketing purposes, subject to the exceptions the law states.
Law / regulation
Article 24 requires a privacy notice before processing and collection, stating at least the controller's domicile, the data processed and which of it is sensitive, the legal basis, the purposes, the mechanisms for exercising ARCO-POL rights and for revoking consent, the delegate's name and contact route, how changes are communicated, any subcontracted processor's contact details and the use of cookies, written clearly and simply.
Law / regulation
Article 25 sets a maximum of seventy-two hours from becoming aware of a qualifying personal-data security breach to notify the Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado, the Fiscalía General de la República and the affected data subjects.
Law / regulation
Article 29 allows the data subject to revoke consent expressly at any time, and requires the controller to provide expeditious, simple and free mechanisms for doing so.
Law / regulation
Article 30 gives the delegate five business days from receipt of a revocation request to act on it, and where a processor also handles the data the delegate must inform it of the revocation decision within five business days so that it executes the decision immediately.
Law / regulation
Article 32 provides that processing may only be carried out for the purposes previously notified, and that private entities may not transfer or process personal data to offer another service or for any purpose other than the one for which it was collected without the data subject's prior authorisation.
Law / regulation
Article 34 obliges the controller, and where applicable the processor, to limit processing to the purpose for which consent was given, implement security measures and policies, and keep personal data confidential.
Law / regulation
Article 54 places the burden of proving that consent was obtained and that the privacy policy or notice was communicated on the controller.
Law / regulation
The Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado is the supervisory authority for the law and operates an official portal for its data-protection forms and services.
Law / regulation
Article 30 of the Ley de Protección al Consumidor requires promotions and special offers to inform the consumer of the conditions, the total price or the elements that make it determinable, and the duration, and article 31 prohibits misleading, false or illicit advertising.
Flowstates recommendation
Where you rely on consent, capture it as prior express, specific, attributable and SMS-channel-specific permission, and keep the evidence: recipient, timestamp, source, notice version, purpose, channel and the exact wording shown at capture.
Flowstates recommendation
Where you rely on another lawful basis, have your counsel document which basis applies to that programme rather than assuming a marketing message inherits a service relationship.
Flowstates recommendation
Publish and link a privacy notice that a Salvadoran recipient can actually reach from the journey where the number was collected.
Flowstates recommendation
Offer an opt-out that is free and simple and that does not depend on a reply, because the current route is one-way.
Flowstates recommendation
Suppress immediately across every list, sender and sending system. That is our own higher operating standard; the statute's revocation process runs on a five-business-day timeline.
Flowstates recommendation
Send promotional traffic in recipient-local daytime hours as our operating standard. No statutory Salvadoran SMS contact window was identified in the official sources reviewed for this page.
Flowstates recommendation
No official Salvadoran source reviewed for this page establishes a national SMS do-not-call or do-not-disturb registry, so do not design around one and do not assume a list vendor's claim of registry screening means anything here.
Carrier or route policy
Sender rewriting, the absence of two-way SMS, conditional concatenation, UCS-2 handling, MMS conversion and fixed-line rejection are route policy. None of them are Salvadoran law, and complying with one says nothing about the other.

Operational compliance checklist

The controls we expect to see before Salvadoran traffic goes into production, and the records we expect you to be able to produce afterwards.

Law / regulation
Store destinations as +503 followed by the eight national digits, with no trunk prefix added or removed.
Law / regulation
Treat 5, 6 and 7 as the current mobile national destination codes, 2 as fixed line, and 3 and 4 as reserved.
Law / regulation
Give a privacy notice before collection that meets article 24, including how rights are exercised and how consent is revoked.
Law / regulation
Keep the ability to evidence consent and the communication of the privacy notice, because article 54 puts that burden on the controller.
Law / regulation
Have a breach process that can notify the Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado, the Fiscalía General de la República and affected data subjects within the seventy-two-hour maximum in article 25.
Law / regulation
Route article 12 objections and article 29 revocations into a process that meets the article 30 timeline and informs any processor.
Flowstates recommendation
Reject stale validation that accepts only 6 and 7 as mobile ranges, and test a 5-series destination end to end.
Flowstates recommendation
Filter fixed-line 2-series numbers out of A2P mobile campaigns before submission.
Flowstates recommendation
Resolve the live destination network with a lookup or supplier routing intelligence rather than inferring it from the prefix.
Flowstates recommendation
Choose the sender deliberately: a preregistered alphanumeric sender where the selected Claro path is confirmed, or a numeric sender where it is not.
Flowstates recommendation
Confirm the actual visible sender, and the fallback behaviour, on the contracted route before launch.
Flowstates recommendation
Identify the sending brand and the purpose inside the message body.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep critical OTP and service copy inside a single segment where practical, and verify the real segment count on the exact route.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not build any flow that depends on the recipient replying while the route is one-way.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep OTP, service and marketing purposes, templates and permission records separate.
Flowstates recommendation
Offer a free, non-reply opt-out in promotional messages and suppress immediately across every sending system.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep promotional claims, conditions and duration accurate and complete in both the message and the landing page.
Flowstates recommendation
Do not use purchased or rented lists.
Flowstates recommendation
Use branded short domains rather than public or shared shorteners.
Flowstates recommendation
Test sender preservation and rewriting, UCS-2 handling, concatenation behaviour and MMS conversion on the exact contracted route.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep evidence of templates, notices, permission, route approval, objections, opt-outs and suppression.
Flowstates recommendation
Get Salvadoran legal review for marketing programmes and for any lawful basis other than consent.

Encoding and delivery

Segment maths, Spanish-language traps and what to test on the real route before launch.

GSM-7 single segment: 160 characters
GSM-7 concatenated: 153 characters per segment
Unicode / UCS-2 single segment: 70 characters
Unicode / UCS-2 concatenated: 67 characters per segment
E.164 example: +503 5XXX XXXX / +503 6XXX XXXX / +503 7XXX XXXX

Carrier or route policy
Twilio marks concatenation as supported with a caveat on its current El Salvador route, and UCS-2 as supported for preregistered alphanumeric, dynamic alphanumeric and international numeric senders.
Flowstates recommendation
Spanish copy does not automatically force UCS-2. ñ, ¿, ¡ and é are in the basic GSM-7 alphabet, but á, í, ó, ú, curly quotation marks and emoji can force UCS-2 if you do not substitute them.
Flowstates recommendation
Because the concatenation caveat depends on sender type and encoding, test your real Spanish copy and its real segment count on the exact sender and route you will use.
Flowstates recommendation
Keep critical OTP and service messages in a single segment wherever practical. Do not treat a provider's maximum segment count as a copywriting target.
Carrier or route policy
MMS is converted into an SMS containing a URL on that provider's route, so design for text and a link rather than an image.
Law / regulation
El Salvador's national access numbers are eight digits with no trunk prefix, so E.164 normalisation is simply +503 plus those eight digits.

A country guide is only useful when the route follows it.

Country rules only help if the route your traffic actually takes respects them. That is the part we operate.

Per-country and per-category routing
Multi-vendor routing decided per country and per traffic category, so OTP, service and marketing traffic into El Salvador do not share one compromise route.
SenderID management
We manage sender presentation per route, per category and per operator path, including preregistered alphanumeric senders towards Claro, and we check what the recipient actually sees before launch.
Carrier-grade failover
Automatic failover between vendors, with fallback senders that are themselves valid for El Salvador rather than a route that quietly substitutes a short code.
Per-route visibility
Delivery, latency and OTP-completion visibility per route, so a quality change on one Salvadoran operator path is visible while it is still small.
24/7 vendor escalation
We chase the vendor. Escalation runs around the clock rather than waiting for a support queue in another time zone.
BYOV / BYOG
Bring your own vendors or gateway and keep your commercial relationships while we operate the routing, sender policy and monitoring.
Branded short links
Branded short domains instead of public shorteners, so Salvadoran recipients see a link that matches the brand in the message body.

Developer docs Branded short links

What we need to validate your El Salvador route

Send us these and we can tell you what your Salvadoran traffic will actually do, per operator path, before you commit to a launch date.

Traffic categories in scope: OTP, transactional, marketing
Monthly volume by category and expected peaks
Sender presentation you want, and whether a preregistered alphanumeric sender towards Claro is required
Sample message templates in the real Spanish copy you will send
Whether any message exceeds a single segment
Opt-in or permission journey, supporting evidence and the exact disclosure wording
The lawful basis you rely on where it is not consent, and who signed it off
Privacy notice and terms URLs
Your objection, revocation, opt-out and suppression process, and its owner
Link domains you intend to use
Whether you need replies or two-way messaging
Unicode or accented-character requirements
How numbers are collected, normalised and validated, including 5-series handling
Target launch date

Validate my El Salvador route Book a messaging review

Frequently asked questions about SMS in El Salvador

Can I send SMS to mobile numbers in El Salvador?

A quick operational read on El Salvador. Anything marked route-dependent is decided by the supplier and operator path your traffic uses. Anything marked law applies whichever supplier you pick. Number format: +503 followed by an eight-digit national access number, including the national destination code; there is no domestic trunk prefix to add or strip. Mobile numbering: Under SIGET's current 2025 numbering plan the mobile national destination codes are 5, 6 and 7, structured 5XYZ-MCDU, 6XYZ-MCDU and 7XYZ-MCDU. Fixed and reserved codes: The fixed-line national destination code is 2; codes 3 and 4 are reserved for future use. Number portability: SIGET describes number portability as a user right applying nationwide to fixed and mobile numbers, prepaid and postpaid, letting the user change operator and keep the number.

Which sender ID options work for SMS in El Salvador?

Sender presentation in El Salvador is decided by the selected route and the destination network. Preregistered alphanumeric sender for Claro — Best for: Brand-visible traffic to Claro El Salvador destinations on the selected provider path that supports sender preregistration. Dynamic alphanumeric sender — Best for: Not recommended; included because traffic often defaults into it when no preregistration exists. International numeric sender — Best for: Traffic that must terminate where a preregistered alphanumeric sender is unavailable. Dedicated or local short code — Best for: A selected domestic programme that needs a stable short origin where operator and supplier support exists.

What are the consent and opt-out requirements for SMS in El Salvador?

El Salvador enacted a general personal-data statute in late 2024. Decreto Legislativo No. 144, the Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales, was published on 15 November 2024, and article 64 provides that it enters into force eight days after publication in the Diario Oficial. Articles 1 and 2 set the object of the law and give it broad scope: it applies to any natural or legal person, public or private, carrying out activities related to the processing of personal data. Article 4, literal f, defines personal data to include contact channels, expressly naming the telephone number and the electronic address.

How many characters fit in an SMS to El Salvador?

Segment maths, Spanish-language traps and what to test on the real route before launch. GSM-7 single segment: 160 characters. GSM-7 concatenated: 153 characters per segment. Unicode / UCS-2 single segment: 70 characters. Unicode / UCS-2 concatenated: 67 characters per segment.

Sources and change control

Official Salvadoran sources control the law and numbering statements on this page. Provider sources describe only their own current route. Where a provider page conflicts with SIGET, we follow SIGET and say so.

Provider route policy
Twilio — El Salvador SMS guidelines
Controls every route statement here: two-way SMS not supported, number portability available, concatenation supported with a caveat, MMS converted into an SMS containing a URL, SMS to landline unsupported, alphanumeric preregistration supported only towards Claro El Salvador with the approved sender preserved, dynamic alphanumeric senders not preserved and possibly overwritten with a short code, international numeric senders not preserved and rewritten outside Twilio into a short code or long code, domestic long codes and short codes operator-capable but unsupported by the current service, and UCS-2 supported for the documented sender types. This is that supplier's current route position, not Salvadoran law.
Official numbering
SIGET — Plan de Numeración Nacional (Resolución T-0648-2025)
The regulator's current national numbering plan page. Controls the eight-digit national access number, the fixed-line national destination code 2, the mobile national destination codes 5, 6 and 7, the reservation of codes 3 and 4, and the absence of a domestic trunk prefix.
Official numbering
SIGET — Plan de Numeración 2025 (PDF)
The plan text behind the structures quoted here: 5XYZ-MCDU, 6XYZ-MCDU and 7XYZ-MCDU for mobile, the fixed-line 2 series, codes 3 and 4 reserved, and 00 as the international dialling prefix.
Historic numbering reference
ITU — El Salvador national numbering plan country page
Historic international numbering reference only. Where it differs from the current SIGET 2025 plan, the SIGET plan controls the current mobile national destination codes.
Regulator
SIGET — number portability
The regulator's portability material. Controls the statement that number portability is a user right applying nationwide to fixed and mobile numbers, prepaid and postpaid, allowing a user to change operator and keep the number. This is telecom number portability and is unrelated to the data-portability right in the personal-data law.
Regulator
SIGET — number portability explainer (PDF)
Consumer-facing explainer used to confirm the scope of the portability service for fixed and mobile users.
Statute
Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales — official text (Órgano Judicial legal documentation)
The official certified text of Decreto Legislativo No. 144 used to verify every article cited here, including articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 24, 25, 29, 30, 32, 34, 50, 54 and 64, and the publication date of 15 November 2024.
Statute (mirror)
Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales — document record
Document record mirroring the Poder Legislativo text of Decreto No. 144. Used as a secondary locator; the official certified text controls.
Statute (mirror)
Ley para la Protección de Datos Personales — PDF
Assembly transcription of the law mirrored by Refworld. Used as a secondary locator; the official certified text controls.
Legislative record
Asamblea Legislativa — approval announcement
The Assembly's own record of the approval of the personal-data law. Cited for legislative context, not for the wording of any article.
Regulator
Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado — data-protection forms and services
The supervisory authority's official portal for its data-protection forms and services.
Regulator
Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado — institutional page
Institutional page for the authority named in the law as responsible for its application and supervision.
Statute
Defensoría del Consumidor — Ley de Protección al Consumidor (2024 reforms)
Controls the consumer statements here: article 30 on the information that must accompany promotions and special offers, and article 31 on misleading, false or illicit advertising.
Regulator
Defensoría del Consumidor — advertising enforcement context
Enforcement context showing how the authority treats misleading advertising and incomplete promotion information. Cited for context only; no penalty figures are published here.
Statute
SIGET — Ley de Telecomunicaciones (2019 reforms)
The official download of the telecommunications statute under which SIGET administers numbering and portability. Cited as the framework for the regulator's role rather than as a source of SMS marketing rules.

Change log

17 August 2026 — Initial publication; adopted SIGET's current 5/6/7 mobile numbering plan, separated El Salvador's data-protection and consumer-law duties from Twilio route policy, and documented Claro-only sender preservation, number portability and one-way route behaviour.

Last reviewed 17 August 2026

Disclaimer

This page is operational guidance, not legal advice. Requirements vary by law, message purpose, sender, provider, carrier route, recipient context and customer setup, and they change. Flowstates confirms the live route with you during onboarding, and you should take your own Salvadoran legal advice on marketing and data-handling obligations.

El Salvador SMS guide