What this means for you
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is introducing new SMS Sender ID rules. From 1 July 2026, businesses will need to register their alphanumeric senders with the ACMA. An alphanumeric sender is a name that appears in the “from” field when someone receives an SMS message. A business SMS might be from “AusPost” or “JoesPizza” rather than a mobile number.
When the new rules come in, unregistered Sender IDs will be overwritten with “Unverified”. This will apply to all messages sent to Australian mobile numbers.
This is an important move to protect Australians from SMS based fraud. It will also improve trust and help make business SMS, including marketing, more trustworthy and a more valuable communications channel.
Impact Data is registered as a participating telco with the ACMA. This means we can register SMS Senders for our customers.
The registration process is straightforward and will require an authorised contact from your ABN listing authorising the request, this prevents other people registering and using your business name. You will need to access you own ACMA Assist portal to confirm Sender ID registrations for your ABN.
We suggest to prepare you make sure your ABR (Australian Business Register) information is up to date now.
The Sender ID you register must match, or be a contraction of, at least one of
- Your business name from the Business Names Register
- Your business name from the Australian Business Register
- One of your registered trademarks from IP Australia’s Trade Mark Search
- Your registered domain in Whois
Your SMS Sender needs to clearly represent your business so that recipients can trust the message from your organisation.
For more information, see https://www.acma.gov.au/sms-sender-id-register.
If you are a TalkBox customer we will be in contact with you via email to prepare you for the registration process. If you don’t receive TalkBox newsletters, contact us at support@impactdata.com.au and we will ensure your details are updated.
