Vietnam’s 2024 Telecommunications Law (No.24/2023/QH15) entered into force on 1 July 2024, replacing the old 2009 Telecommunications Law. MIC oversees its implementation, and the supporting Decree No.163/2024/NĐ‑CP took effect on 1 January 2025. For the first time, the law brings OTT communications such as Zalo and WhatsApp, cloud computing and data centers under telecom service regulation with a registration and filing regime. Cross-border service providers must also comply with Vietnam’s national security and data protection rules, while a brand-new regulatory framework for A2P SMS is established.
The most distinctive local rule of the new law mandates embedding the brand name inside the SMS body. Starting from 12 August 2024, all commercial SMS must display a brand or application name fully matching the registered alphanumeric Sender‑ID at the beginning of the message text. This differs from the model adopted in most countries, where sender information only appears in the sender field. Sender‑IDs must be pre-registered with operators with an approval cycle of roughly five weeks. IDs must align with the enterprise name or trademark; generic names such as WEB2SMS are prohibited, and IDs are case-sensitive.
This requirement creates practical challenges for SMS template design. Brand identifiers consume message character quota. Since Vietnamese uses Unicode encoding, the character limit for a single SMS is reduced from 160 to 70 characters, which easily splits content into multiple messages. Character length and capacity testing must therefore be completed before finalising SMS templates.
In terms of business rules, Vietnamese A2P SMS channels are one-way and do not support end-user replies. Marketing SMS must be checked against the national DND Do-Not-Disturb list prior to delivery. Processing of mobile phone numbers shall follow Decree No.13/2023/NĐ‑CP on Personal Data Protection. Viettel, Vinaphone and Mobifone, the three major operators, cover approximately 95% of domestic mobile subscribers. Viettel began blocking SMS traffic that fails brand display requirements as early as 1 July 2024. Additional provisions are also added to curb unfair pricing and improper commercial practices in the telecom sector and strengthen consumer protection.
