Alphanumeric SMS Sender ID format

The ACMA has restrictions and criteria for all SMS Sender IDs. When submitting a new application to register an alphanumeric Sender ID, the following is required.  

A sender ID must be formatted to: 

• 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. Review the ACMA requirements for valid use case. 

Restricted words set by ACMA include: 

The ACMA will not accept applications to register sender IDs that consist of only one or more restricted words on the following list: 

• account
• alert
• anti-fraud
• assist
• assistance
• bank
• banking
• bill
• billing
• delivery
• help
• important
• info
• information
• message
• notice
• notify
• package
• password
• sale
• secure
• security
• service
• support
• tax
• urgent
• verify
• verified

See current ACMA restricted terms and guides.