Send SMS to Philippines
from $0.0090/msg

smsroute delivers SMS to any Philippine mobile number from $0.009 per message over SIM-registration-compliant routes. Reaches all three operators — Globe, Smart/PLDT, and DITO — via our Singapore POP with 265 ms median latency and 98.3% delivery success. Payment in Bitcoin, USDT (TRC-20/ERC-20), Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, or Solana. No KYC at signup. Automatic scrubbing of unregistered-SIM bounces.

The SIM Registration Act (RA 11934) — How 2022 Changed Philippines A2P Forever

Republic Act 11934, the SIM Registration Act, is the single most consequential piece of Philippine telecommunications legislation of the last decade for anyone sending A2P SMS into the country. It was signed into law on 10 October 2022 and took effect 28 October 2022 (15 days after Official Gazette publication); the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) followed and took effect 27 December 2022. Together those instruments fundamentally redrew the map of who is reachable by SMS.

What RA 11934 did. Before RA 11934, the Philippines had one of the loosest SIM acquisition regimes in Southeast Asia — you could walk into any sari-sari store, pay PHP 50, and leave with an active SIM. No ID, no address on file. The result was the highest mobile penetration ratio in the region (146% in 2022) driven by a long tail of throwaway SIMs used for scams, spam, and pseudonymous activity. RA 11934 changed this absolutely: every SIM, prepaid or postpaid, must be registered with a government-issued ID tied to a specific natural person. New SIM activations require verification at the point of sale. Existing SIMs had a grace period — 180 days initially, extended once by 90 days to 25 July 2023 — to register retroactively.

The deactivation wave. After the grace period closed, the NTC and the three operators began mass deactivation of unregistered SIMs. By year-end 2023, roughly 54 million SIMs had been deactivated (Globe ~33M, Smart ~14M, DITO ~7M per published operator-level reporting) — against a subscriber base of about 163 million, this was a near-one-third cull. The effect on A2P senders was immediate and painful: recipient lists built between 2018 and 2022 suddenly returned bounce rates of 20-35% against historical baselines of 3-5%. Delivery success metrics that providers had been publishing for years collapsed across Q3 and Q4 2023. If you launched a Philippine SMS integration in that window and compared against legacy benchmarks, you would have reasonably concluded the routes were broken.

Why undelivered rates spiked and then stabilized. The Q3 2023 through Q1 2024 stretch was the noisy middle period — active senders were still discovering which of their historical recipients had failed to re-register. By Q2 2024 the churn settled: new recipient lists acquired after July 2023 started from a clean base, and old lists had been mostly scrubbed of dead SIMs. smsroute's rolling 90-day delivery success on Philippine routes is now back to 98.3% — near the pre-RA-11934 baseline — but only against recipients whose numbers were verified registered at opt-in time.

What this means for you as a sender. Every A2P recipient list for the Philippines should be treated as needing SIM-registration validation at collection time and every ~6 months thereafter. smsroute surfaces unregistered-SIM bounces as SIM_NOT_REGISTERED — a permanent failure, not a retry. The route honors RA 11934 end-to-end: we will not attempt delivery to a deactivated SIM and will never retry the same number after this response.

NTC Sender-ID Registration — The PHP 500-1,000 Fee Per Operator

Parallel to the SIM Registration Act, the NTC continues to enforce its pre-existing sender-ID regime for commercial A2P traffic. Alphanumeric sender IDs of up to 11 characters (Latin alphabet, no spaces) are permitted for brands that register — but unregistered IDs are rewritten by operators to a generic shared pool, losing the brand recall that is the whole point of an alphanumeric ID in the first place.

How to register. Registration runs per-operator. You submit a request through each operator's enterprise messaging channel with: (1) your proposed sender ID string, (2) brand name and proof of registration (SEC for corporations, DTI for sole proprietorships), (3) intended use — OTP, marketing, notifications, 2FA, (4) three to five sample messages that demonstrate the use case, and (5) a board resolution or letter of authorization.

Which operators require it. Globe and Smart both enforce sender-ID registration and charge PHP 500-1,000 per ID per operator as a one-time filing fee. DITO, as the third entrant launched in 2021, has historically been more permissive — it accepts sender IDs at the operator level without the per-ID fee, though this is evolving as DITO scales up commercial traffic.

Turnaround. Globe's compliance review runs 5-7 business days; Smart is 3-5 business days. Typical first-submission approval rate is 80-90%. The most common rejections are generic strings ("ACCOUNT", "OTP", "INFO") that conflict with existing registrants, and strings that could impersonate banks or government agencies (anything containing "BSP", "BPI", "BIR", "SSS", "GSIS", "DOH").

What unregistered IDs get rewritten to. If you send with an unregistered alphanumeric "from", Globe rewrites to a numeric shortcode in the 2xxx range; Smart rewrites to a generic branded shared pool ("PLDTINFO" or similar); DITO usually passes through unchanged. The message still delivers, but the recipient sees a generic sender rather than your brand. For OTP flows where users scan the sender to validate legitimacy, unregistered delivery creates measurable abandonment — register the sender ID if volume justifies the filing fee.

DPA 2012 consent framework + unregistered-SIM bounce handling

The Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10173) remains the foundational consent law for marketing SMS in the Philippines. It predates RA 11934 but operates orthogonally — DPA governs how you collected the recipient's consent, RA 11934 governs whether the recipient's SIM is legally active. Both conditions must be satisfied for compliant marketing delivery.

DPA consent requirements. Explicit opt-in is required for marketing SMS. Transactional SMS (OTP, booking confirmations, delivery updates) falls under the legitimate-interest and contract-performance lawful bases and does not require separate opt-in beyond the account relationship.

Unregistered-SIM handling. smsroute's webhook surfaces three relevant delivery states for the Philippines:

• DELIVERED — operator confirmed delivery to registered SIM
• SIM_NOT_REGISTERED — RA 11934 deactivation; permanent failure, do not retry
• UNKNOWN_SUBSCRIBER — number never existed or has been fully reclaimed; also permanent

Mobile operators in the Philippines

The Philippines is a three-operator market, though the structure is recent. Until 2021, Globe and Smart were a duopoly — the closest thing to a stable two-operator market in the region — and the government was actively soliciting a third entrant to introduce competitive pressure.

Globe Telecom. ~51% market share. Owned jointly by Ayala Corporation (one of the oldest Philippine conglomerates) and Singapore's Singtel. Globe has the strongest Metro Manila and Cebu urban coverage and the largest enterprise-messaging practice. Globe's sender-ID registration process is the most formalized of the three and carries the highest first-submission approval rate.

Smart Communications. ~39% share. Subsidiary of PLDT, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone company. Smart is historically strong in Visayas and Mindanao provincial coverage. Smart's enterprise messaging platform is more flexible on template content than Globe but its sender-ID filing queue can backlog during peak promotional seasons (November-December).

DITO Telecommunity. ~10% share and growing. DITO launched commercial service in March 2021 as the long-awaited third carrier, backed by Udenna Corporation and China Telecom in a joint venture. DITO was required under its franchise to achieve national coverage milestones on an aggressive schedule and has spent heavily on tower build-out. For A2P, DITO's interconnect is modern and its sender-ID handling lighter-touch — the downside is a slightly higher latency baseline and thinner coverage in remote provinces.

How to send SMS to the Philippines in 3 steps

Step 1 — Create an account and register (or borrow) a sender ID

Sign up at smsroute.cc. For low-volume traffic, use our shared sender ID. For brand traffic at any material volume, register your own via the dashboard's NTC pass-through (we handle the filing with Globe and Smart).

Step 2 — Top up with crypto

Minimum $5. USDT (TRC-20 for lowest fees) credits in ~1 minute. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, and Solana also accepted.

Step 3 — Send with +63 E.164 format

Philippine mobile numbers are 10 digits after +63. Operator prefix mapping:

• Globe: 905, 906, 915, 916, 917, 926, 927 (e.g. +63 917 xxx xxxx)
• Smart: 918, 919, 928, 929, 939 (e.g. +63 919 xxx xxxx)
• DITO: 895, 896, 897, 898 (e.g. +63 895 xxx xxxx)

import fetch from "node-fetch";

const apiKey = process.env.SMSROUTE_API_KEY;

const res = await fetch("https://api.smsroute.cc/messages", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    to: "+635551234567",
    from: "smsroute",
    text: "Your verification code is 384921",
  }),
});

console.log(await res.json());

import requests, os

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SMSROUTE_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "to": "+639171234567",
        "from": "ACMEPH",
        "body": "Your Acme OTP is 384921. Valid 10 minutes."
    }
)
print(r.json())

curl -X POST https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SMSROUTE_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+639171234567",
    "from": "ACMEPH",
    "body": "Your Acme OTP is 384921. Valid 10 minutes."
  }'

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    payload, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]string{
        "to":   "+635551234567",
        "from": "smsroute",
        "text": "Your verification code is 384921",
    })

    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST",
        "https://api.smsroute.cc/messages",
        bytes.NewBuffer(payload))
    req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("SMSROUTE_API_KEY"))
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
    if err != nil { panic(err) }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

<?php
$apiKey = getenv('SMSROUTE_API_KEY');

$payload = json_encode([
    'to'   => '+635551234567',
    'from' => 'smsroute',
    'text' => 'Your verification code is 384921',
], JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

$ch = curl_init('https://api.smsroute.cc/messages');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json',
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
]);

echo curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

import fetch from "node-fetch";

const apiKey = process.env.SMSROUTE_API_KEY;

const res = await fetch("https://api.smsroute.cc/messages", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    to: "+635551234567",
    from: "smsroute",
    text: "Your verification code is 384921",
  }),
});

console.log(await res.json());

import requests, os

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SMSROUTE_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "to": "+639171234567",
        "from": "ACMEPH",
        "body": "Your Acme OTP is 384921. Valid 10 minutes."
    }
)
print(r.json())

curl -X POST https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SMSROUTE_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+639171234567",
    "from": "ACMEPH",
    "body": "Your Acme OTP is 384921. Valid 10 minutes."
  }'

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    payload, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]string{
        "to":   "+635551234567",
        "from": "smsroute",
        "text": "Your verification code is 384921",
    })

    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST",
        "https://api.smsroute.cc/messages",
        bytes.NewBuffer(payload))
    req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("SMSROUTE_API_KEY"))
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
    if err != nil { panic(err) }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

<?php
$apiKey = getenv('SMSROUTE_API_KEY');

$payload = json_encode([
    'to'   => '+635551234567',
    'from' => 'smsroute',
    'text' => 'Your verification code is 384921',
], JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

$ch = curl_init('https://api.smsroute.cc/messages');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json',
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
]);

echo curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);