# A2P SMS regulations in Botswana

> A2P SMS to Botswana is regulated by the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA). BOCRA sender ID registration via operator. English primary; Setswana acceptable, with approval typically taking 5-7 business days. Botswana Data Protection Act 2018 enforced. BroadNet carries this traffic over direct operator connections.

- Canonical URL: https://www.broadnet.me/regulations/botswana
- Language: en
- Last reviewed: 2026-09-29
- Publisher: BroadNet (https://www.broadnet.me)

## Key facts

- **BOCRA** — Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority regulates A2P messaging
- **5-7 days** — Typical sender-ID approval time
- **99.99%** — Platform uptime SLA

## Who regulates A2P SMS in Botswana?

Application-to-person messaging to Botswana is overseen by the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA), which licenses the operators that terminate A2P traffic and sets the conditions those routes run under. BroadNet delivers into Botswana over direct operator connections — Mascom, Orange Botswana and beMobile — rather than through resold or grey routes, so the sender ID, the delivery receipt and the audit trail all come back from the licensed path.

- Telecoms regulator: Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA).
- Direct operator routes: Mascom, Orange Botswana and beMobile.
- Sender-ID registration: BOCRA sender ID registration via operator. English primary; Setswana acceptable.
- Typical lead time: 5-7 business days.

## Sender ID registration in Botswana

BOCRA sender ID registration via operator. English primary; Setswana acceptable. Registration is not a formality — an unregistered or mismatched sender ID is the most common reason otherwise-valid traffic is filtered, and the failure is usually silent rather than a hard rejection. Plan 5-7 business days for approval and register before you need the route, not during a launch.

- Lead time: 5-7 business days.
- BroadNet files sender IDs on your behalf through the BOCRA-licensed operators.
- English + Setswana: Both supported.
- Time to production: Live in 5–15 business days from test-access request to production.

## Consent and content rules

Botswana Data Protection Act 2018 enforced. Transactional messages — one-time passcodes, delivery and account alerts — are treated differently from marketing, but the distinction is decided by the content of the message rather than by how the campaign is labelled.

- BOCRA sender ID: Sender IDs registered via operator route.
- DPA 2018: Botswana Data Protection Act enforced.
- English + Setswana: Both supported.

## What this means for your integration

Practically, three things decide whether traffic to Botswana performs: a registered sender ID on a BOCRA-licensed route, a consent and opt-out record you can evidence, and message content that matches the category it was registered under. BroadNet's compliance engine checks each submission against the Botswana ruleset before it reaches the operator, so a non-compliant send is rejected back to you rather than filtered silently downstream — which is the difference between a fixable error and traffic that quietly disappears.

- Every message returns a delivery receipt (DLR); BroadNet does not publish per-country delivery percentages.
- Indicative list pricing: USD 0.03 – 0.05 per message.
- Addressable mobile base: 4M subscribers.
- DPA 2018: Botswana Data Protection Act enforced.

## Botswana rules: promotional vs. transactional SMS

|  | Promotional / marketing | Transactional / service (OTP, alerts) |
|---|---|---|
| Registered sender ID required | Yes | Yes |
| Prior consent required | Yes | No |
| Opt-out instruction required | Yes | No |
| Delivery receipts available | Yes | Yes |

## Frequently asked questions

### Who regulates SMS in Botswana?

the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA). It licenses the operators that terminate A2P traffic and sets the conditions those routes operate under. BroadNet delivers into Botswana over direct connections to Mascom, Orange Botswana and beMobile.

### Do I need to register a sender ID for Botswana?

Yes. BOCRA sender ID registration via operator. English primary; Setswana acceptable. Allow 5-7 business days for approval. An unregistered sender ID is the most common cause of silently filtered traffic, so register before the campaign rather than during it.

### How long does it take to start sending to Botswana?

Live in 5–15 business days from test-access request to production. The sender-ID registration is usually the long pole at 5-7 business days; the technical integration itself is the same REST or SMPP interface you would use for any other market.

### What does A2P SMS cost in Botswana?

Indicative list pricing is USD 0.03 – 0.05 per message, with volume tiers below that. The rate depends on the operator, the message category and committed volume — see the Botswana coverage page for the per-operator breakdown.

### What delivery rate should I expect in Botswana?

BroadNet does not publish per-country delivery percentages. Every message on these direct operator routes returns a delivery receipt (DLR), so you can measure delivery on your own traffic, and the platform carries a 99.99% uptime SLA. Grey routes deliver until they do not, and give you no receipt when they fail.

## Related

- [Botswana coverage](https://www.broadnet.me/coverage/botswana)
- [All regulations](https://www.broadnet.me/regulations)

## Technical facts for Botswana

Network codes, message lengths and sender-ID rules in one table. Segment lengths are the GSM standard values (3GPP TS 23.038).

| Technical facts | |
|---|---|
| Mobile country code (MCC) | 652 |
| Dialling code | +267 |
| Operators (MCC-MNC) | Mascom · 652-01; Orange Botswana · 652-02; beMobile · 652-04 |
| SMS length, GSM-7 (Latin alphabet) | 160 characters in a single SMS; 153 per part when concatenated |
| SMS length, UCS-2 (Arabic, Cyrillic and other scripts) | 70 characters in a single SMS; 67 per part when concatenated |
| Regulator | BOCRA (Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority) |
| Sender-ID rules | BOCRA sender ID registration via operator. English primary; Setswana acceptable. |
| Sender-ID lead time | 5-7 business days |

## Sources

- [BOCRA — Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority](https://www.bocra.org.bw/)