We've recently become aware of enhanced spam monitoring and regulations for voice communications in China that will lead to blocked or undeliverable voice notifications. 

Minimum average call length

Our Support teams were recently informed by one of our communications providers that calls to China were at risk of being blocked due to too many short or unanswered calls.

China has regulations in place that prohibit any company from attempting to connect a high volume of voice calls that are on average less than three minutes long (based on our provider's interpretation of the regulations). Although this is intended to curb over-zealous telemarketers and spam callers, we are committed to our continued compliance with all local laws and regulations and must conform to these limitations. We are seeking a resolution or exemption based on the fact that calls from xMatters are used for critical events and are not marketing related, but this may take some time to be resolved.

As of 5PM Pacific, July 10, 2023, calls on some carriers will be blocked for xMatters. It may be only a matter of time before the same restrictions are implemented across all possible carriers to China and sending voice notifications to Chinese users may become unreliable. 

Recommended mitigation tactics

The easiest way to avoid any possible disruptions in service is to implement alternate notification delivery methods. This would mean having users prioritize email, SMS, and other non-voice device types. iOS users may also be able to receive push notifications via the xMatters app, available in the Apple Store. We've already reached out to customers with a large number of users in China and will work directly with customers with any issues that arise.

We also continue to search for a longer-term or permanent solution that will allow us to send any required volume of voice notifications into China, including alternate carriers and a possible exemption due to the transactional nature of xMatters notifications. We'll update this article with our progress.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please reach out to Support directly.