International organisations sending text messages to Australia

You must register your sender IDs in our SMS Sender ID Register to avoid your text messages to Australian mobiles being blocked or disrupted. 

This will help protect your sender IDs from being impersonated by scammers.

If you send messages with sender IDs to Australia, you need to register your sender IDs before 1 July 2026.

If you do not register your sender ID by 1 July 2026, your sender ID will be replaced with the word ‘Unverified’. Messages with unregistered sender IDs will be grouped together in a single ‘Unverified’ message thread on mobile phones, indicating it may be a scam. 

Apply now – the sooner the better. Do not wait until June – applications close to the deadline may risk delays or disrupting your customer communications. The absolute latest to apply is 23 June 2026, but we strongly recommend acting now to so that your sender IDs are approved in time. 

If you do not send messages to Australia, then you don’t need to do anything.

If you do not have an Australian Business Number (ABN), you need to contact an Australian ‘certified telecommunications provider’ or one of their partners, to register your sender IDs. 

View our list of approved telecommunications and message providers and their partners.

If your existing telecommunications provider or message provider is not a certified telecommunications provider, or has not partnered with a certified telecommunications provider, they cannot register sender IDs on your behalf. In this case, you will need to contact a certified telecommunications provider.

1. Contact a certified telecommunications provider or their partner 

If your existing provider isn’t a certified telecommunications provider, use our list to find one.

2. Pass the verification checks

You will need to show that your organisation is officially recognised or certified by a governing body, regulator or accreditation authority in your country.

Your authorised representative will also need to verify their identity.

3. Provide your telco with the sender ID(s) you wish to register

You will need to prove a valid use case for each sender ID – that means the sender ID must match your organisation’s trademark or name entered on an official register or record in your country. 

International organisations without an ABN cannot access the register directly. The certified telecommunications provider or their partner will manage the registration process and maintain your contact details in the register.

Restrictions and criteria

Sender IDs must meet specific criteria before they can be registered. 

A sender ID must: 

• only consist of letters, numbers and symbols – these should correspond to decimal codes 32–126 from the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) standard
• be at least 2 and no more than 11 characters long
• not consist only of numbers
• not contain a space or underscore at the beginning or end of the sender ID
• not contain the word ‘Unverified’
• not contain a word or words that are offensive, deceptive or misleading, using the commonly understood definitions of those terms
• not solely consist of a restricted word or words.

Sender IDs are not case sensitive (for example, ‘ABC’ is considered the same as ‘abc’).

A sender ID can be registered and used by multiple organisations if each organisation can prove it has a valid use case.

Linking your sender ID to your organisation

Your sender ID must also be clearly linked to your organisation. This helps your customers recognise who the message is from and reduces the risk of confusion or impersonation.

You can register a sender ID that:

• is the same as your organisation’s name, or a shortened version (for example, ‘Worldwide Bank’ → ’WorldBank’)
• is an acronym or initialism of your name (for example, ‘National Transport Authority‘ → ’NTA’)
• includes extra words that relate to your organisation’s role, location or the purpose of the message (for example, ‘NTA Alerts’).

For international organisations without an ABN, your sender ID must match your organisation’s trademark or its name entered on an official register or record in the country in which your organisation is based.