Opsgenie and Jira Service Management SMS notifications for Singapore have been reinstated

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Tl;dr: Atlassian has registered a legal entity in Singapore so Opsgenie and Jira Service Management SMS notifications to subscribers with Singapore phone numbers will be reinstated on January 5th, 2024.

In August SMS notifications for Singapore phone numbers were disabled because of a new requirement by the Singapore government requiring all organizations that send SMS messages to have a subsidiary in Singapore. Atlassian has registered a legal entity and SMS notifications to all Singapore users will be reinstated as of January 5th, 2024.

Responders and other users with a Singapore phone number who previously received alert notifications via SMS will begin seeing those notifications again on January 5th, automatically.

If you’re a responder or a site admin with a Singapore phone number and you previously removed SMS as a notification channel you can add it back in.

If you’re a site admin and you changed your notification templates to remove SMS, you can now update them to include SMS.

Central Notification Templates that previously had SMS as a notification channel have been turned back on for customers in Singapore.

We want to thank all of you, our customers, and the community for the feedback and your patience over the past several months as we worked to reinstate this important notification channel for users with Singapore phone numbers.

Archived post:

Tl;dr: To deliver an SMS message to a Singapore phone number, the Singapore government now requires organizations to have a subsidiary in Singapore; otherwise, SMS messages will be blocked from being delivered. Because Atlassian does not have a legal entity in Singapore, on August 1st SMS notifications for Singapore phone numbers will be disabled in Opsgenie and Jira Service Management. Users with Singapore phone numbers will continue to receive alert notifications in all other notification channels including email, voice, and mobile app. Read on below for the details of this change.

The Singapore government now requires organizations that send SMS messages to Singapore phone numbers to register their sender IDs with the Singapore Network Information Center (SGNIC). To register with the SGNIC, organizations must have a local unique entity number (UEN), and to receive a UEN, an organization must have a subsidiary in Singapore. Organizations that don't meet these criteria will have their SMS messages to Singapore phone numbers blocked.

Atlassian does not have a subsidiary in Singapore, so on August 1st, 2023, SMS notifications will be disabled for Singapore phone numbers. All other Opsgenie and Jira Service Management notification channels will continue to work and be delivered to users with a Singapore phone number including email, voice, and mobile app.

To inform affected customers, we are sending an email to Opsgenie and Jira Service Management customers who have subscribers with a Singapore phone number receiving SMS alerts.

In product, we’re adding banners that communicate this change across the notification templates, and notification setup screens in Opsgenie as depicted below.

Action Required for Site Admins: Review Central Notification Templates

Site admins should review their notification templates to ensure that any existing templates have alternative notification channels included so users with Singapore phone numbers continue to receive notifications after July 31st.

Action Required for all responders and site admins

Review and adjust your notification rules to ensure that you will receive notifications after SMS notifications are disabled on August 1, 2023.

What existing Singapore SMS Subscribers will see through July 31st, 2023:

A warning message, shown below appears on the Notification screen.

After July 31st, the SMS contact method is disabled for Singapore phone numbers.

Notification rules that include Singapore phone numbers

Through July 31st, a warning appears at the top of the Notification rules screen with a link to this community post for more information.

After July 31st, the SMS contact method is disabled for any SMS notification rule for a Singapore phone number.

What New Singapore SMS subscribers will see:

Beginning on July 24th, 2023 when a user attempts to add a Singapore phone number, a warning message appears, and a non-Singapore phone number must be added to proceed with setup.

We’re sorry to have to make this change to meet these new regulations in Singapore, and we realize it’s a big disruption to Opsgenie and Jira Service Management users’ workflow. We’re working with our product and Legal teams to see what we can do to bring SMS notifications back to users with Singapore phone numbers and will update you all as we learn more.

Please leave your questions and comments below and we will jump in and answer them.