SMS Regulations Australia

Mandatory registration of alphanumeric Sender IDs from 1 July 2026

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is introducing a mandatory SMS Sender ID Register as part of a national anti-scam initiative. This affects anyone sending SMS messages to recipients in Australia using an alphanumeric sender name.

What is changing?

From 1 July 2026, any alphanumeric Sender ID that is not registered in the ACMA register will be automatically replaced with "Unverified". This may impact message recognition and recipient trust.

Only alphanumeric Sender IDs (such as "Smstools" or "MyCompany") are affected by this regulation. Numeric sender numbers — both Australian and international long codes — do not need to be registered. If you are using international long codes, we can whitelist these on your behalf to prevent them from being overwritten to "Unverified". Contact us at support@smstools.com to arrange this.

Do you have an Australian Business Number (ABN)?

Customers with an Australian Business Number are required to register directly with ACMA via ACMA Assist.

What you need to do:

An authorised representative of your ABN entity must create an account in ACMA Assist. The step-by-step account setup guide is available on the ACMA website: www.acma.gov.au/instructions. Complete this step before starting your Sender ID registration — approval happens via ACMA Assist and without a correctly created account your entity cannot approve registration requests. The authorised representative must match the records held in the Australian Business Register (ABR).

Registration via ACMA is free of charge for ABN entities.

Do you not have an Australian Business Number (ABN)?

Customers without an ABN are not required to register directly with ACMA but do need to complete a verification process through us.

The costs for this are €50 one-time per Sender ID and €25 per month per Sender ID.

If you would like to proceed with registration, contact us at support@smstools.com and we will guide you through the next steps.

Action required before 1 July 2026

To avoid your messages to Australian recipients being sent as "Unverified", we recommend taking action as soon as possible. Depending on your situation:

If you have an ABN — register now via ACMA Assist. If you do not have an ABN and want to register — contact us for the next steps. If you are using international long codes — contact us to arrange whitelisting.

Questions?

Contact our support team at support@smstools.com. We are happy to help.

Updated on: 22/06/2026