Sender ID Registration
Register your SMS Sender ID with ACMA
Deadline: 1 July 2026. From this date, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) requires every SMS sender name delivered to Australian recipients to be on the SMS Sender ID Register. Unregistered sender names will be overstamped as "Unverified" on Australian carriers, which can affect customer trust and message delivery.
This article walks you through registering your SMS sender names through the Atom Telecom portal. Registration is free, takes about 5 minutes per sender name, and you can save drafts and resume any time.
What's changing
From 1 July 2026, every SMS sender name (the alphanumeric ID your recipients see — e.g.
AtomAlerts) must be linked to a real ABN on ACMA's public register. Until you register, your messages will continue to send as normal. After 1 July, anything not on the register displays as Unverified on the recipient's handset.The Atom Telecom portal handles the submission to ACMA on your behalf — you complete a short form, our team reviews it, and we forward it to ACMA.
Which cohort are you?
How you register depends on your relationship to the messages you send.
🟢 Corporate — you send under your own brand
If you send SMS using your own business name (e.g. you're a retailer sending order updates to your customers), this is you.
- Register each sender name against your own ABN.
- You confirm the business details, contact email, and use case.
- Atom reviews each submission and forwards it to ACMA on your behalf.
- ACMA may email a confirmation link to your nominated contact during verification.
Consent required: N/A (you own the brand).
🟡 Wholesale — you resell SMS services to your own customers
If you're a reseller and your customers send SMS under their own brands, this is you.
- You register each customer's sender ID on their behalf, as a direct registration against the customer's ABN.
- You'll need from each customer:
- ABN
- Registered business name
- Contact email and phone
- Chosen sender name
- Use case (transactional / marketing / OTP, etc.)
- Get written consent from each customer before registering on their behalf — ACMA's confirmation link goes to the customer's nominated contact, not yours.
- Communicate the 1 July 2026 deadline to your customer base early — high-volume accounts may need extra lead time.
Consent required: ✅ Yes — written.
🔵 Entity Associate — you send SMS on behalf of another business
If you operate messaging on behalf of a brand you don't own (e.g. a marketing agency sending under your client's brand, or a BPO sending OTPs for your clients), this is you.
- The sender name is registered against the brand owner's ABN — you're recorded as the authorised "entity associate" who operates the messaging.
- You'll need:
- The brand owner's ABN
- Registered business name and address
- A nominated contact at the brand owner
- Both ABNs (brand owner + entity associate) appear on ACMA's public register.
- The brand owner's contact email receives ACMA's confirmation link, not yours — coordinate timing with them so it doesn't sit unactioned.
Consent required: ✅ Yes — written (operator authorisation from the brand owner).
Before you start
Have these ready for each sender name you're registering:
Sender name (2–11 characters, alphanumeric — the ID your recipients see)
ABN of the entity that owns the brand
Registered business name (we auto-fill from your ABN, but worth verifying)
Contact email — ACMA may email a confirmation link here during verification
Contact phone
Use case — at least one of:
- Registered business name
- Registered company name
- Registered trademark
- Registered domain name
Short description of how the brand uses SMS (e.g. "Order confirmations and delivery updates")
If you're registering as a Wholesale or Entity Associate, you'll also need written consent from the brand owner before submitting.
Step-by-step walkthrough
Open Brand Registration
From the customer portal sidebar, click Brand Registration.
You'll land on a page listing all your SMS services. Each service can have one or more sender names linked to it; you'll see the current status next to each.
Tip — Hide empty services. Toggle this in the top-right to collapse services that have no sender names yet, so you can focus on what's already in progress.
Step 1 — Pick or add a sender name
Click + New Sender Name next to the service you want to register a sender for or click Register next to an existing brand-name row that's still showing as Not registered.
On Step 1, enter the sender name the way it should appear on recipients' phones (max 11 characters, no spaces). The portal shows a live preview as you type. Select at least one use-case type — these tell ACMA why your business is allowed to use this name.
Naming rules. ACMA enforces some restrictions: names can't include certain restricted terms (e.g.Police,Bank), can't be all numeric, and must be 2–11 characters. The portal validates your input live — if it warns you, pick a different name.
Click Continue → to save the draft and move to Step 2.
Step 2 — Confirm your business details
We auto-fill the ABN, registered business name, and address from the Australian Business Register. Confirm everything is accurate.
If you're registering as an Entity Associate, this is also where you nominate the brand owner — separate ABN, separate contact details. The portal shows extra fields for the entity-associate flow.
Click Continue →.
Step 3 — Contact details and use case
Provide:
- Contact name, email, phone — ACMA may email a confirmation link here during verification.
- Use case category — broadly: transactional, marketing, or OTP/authentication.
- Description — one or two sentences about how the brand uses SMS.
Optional CC email. You can add a secondary email to be copied on every status update for this registration — handy if multiple people need visibility.
Check the description before continuing
If your Description contains unsupported characters, the portal shows a message beside the field and stops you from continuing to the review step. The message identifies the characters you need to remove or replace and lists the punctuation you can use.
For example, commas (,) and forward slashes (/) are not accepted in this field.
- Read the message beside Description.
- Remove or replace each unsupported character shown in the message.
- Select Continue again. Once the description passes validation and the other required fields are valid, you can proceed to review.
Example
- Instead of: Order confirmations, delivery updates
- Use: Order confirmations and delivery updates
Note: This guidance is for the Description field. Do not apply the same character restrictions to business address fields.
Click Continue → to review.
Step 4 — Review and submit
The final screen shows everything you've entered. Double-check it, then click Submit Registration.
That's it. You'll be redirected to a status page for this sender name, and you'll receive an email confirmation at the address you provided in Step 3.
What happens after you submit
- Atom reviews your submission (typically same business day). We check for ACMA validity rules — your business name has to match one of the use-case types you nominated, the sender name has to fit naming rules, etc.
- If everything checks out, Atom submits to ACMA on your behalf.
- ACMA verifies. They may email a confirmation link to your contact email — please follow any instructions in that email. This is the slowest part of the process and is outside our control.
- Once verified, your sender name goes live and shows as Active on the portal. From that point, messages sent using this sender name will display as verified on recipients' handsets.
You'll receive an email at every status change.
Reading the status badges
The Brand Registration landing page shows the current state of every sender name. Here's what each status means.
9 of 9 rows
| ⚪ Not registered | No registration has started | The brand name is set up on the service, but no one has clicked Register yet. | Click Register when you're ready. |
| ⚫ Draft — Step X of 4 | Draft saved, not submitted | Someone started filling out the form but didn't finish. Drafts auto-save and expire after 30 days. | Click Resume to continue. |
| 🟡 Pending review | Submitted, waiting on Atom | We've received your registration and are running validation. Usually same business day. | Sit tight — no action needed. |
| 🟡 Submitted | Sent to ACMA | Atom has forwarded your registration to ACMA. Awaiting their verification. | Watch your contact email for an ACMA confirmation link. |
| 🟡 Under review | ACMA is verifying | ACMA is actively checking your registration. | Watch your contact email. |
| 🔵 Approved — activates {date} | Verified by ACMA, future activation | Approved but with a future go-live date (e.g. brand-new sender). | Nothing to do — it'll switch to Active on the date shown. |
| 🟢 Active | Live on the ACMA register | Your sender name is live and will display as verified to recipients. | Nothing to do — you're done. |
| 🔴 Rejected | Atom or ACMA declined the submission | The submission didn't meet validation rules | Click Edit & Resubmit to fix the issues. |
| ⚫ Revoked | Previously active, now removed from register | ACMA has revoked this registration (rare — typically requires action on your part). | Contact Atom support to investigate. |
Frequently asked questions
Is registration free?
Yes. ACMA does not charge a fee for sender ID registration, and Atom Telecom doesn't pass on any registration cost.
How long does the whole process take?
End to end, expect a few business days. Breakdown:
- Form completion: ~5 minutes per sender name.
- Atom review: usually same business day.
- ACMA verification: typically 1–5 business days, but can be longer.
Can I register more than one sender name on the same service?
Yes. A single SMS service can have multiple registered sender names — useful if your business uses different brands for different campaign types (e.g.
AtomAlerts for OTPs and AtomNews for marketing). Each sender name needs its own registration.What if I miss the 1 July 2026 deadline?
You can still register at any time after the deadline. There's no penalty for late registration — you just won't have the verified indicator on your messages until ACMA approves you. The sooner you register, the sooner your messages display as verified.
Why was my registration rejected?
Most common reasons:
- Sender name doesn't match the use case. Your sender name should closely resemble your business name, trademark, or domain. If you nominated Registered business name but the sender name isn't recognisably your business, ACMA will reject it.
- Restricted terms. ACMA blocks certain words (e.g. names of banks, government agencies, emergency services) unless you have specific authorisation.
- Invalid characters or length. Sender names must be 2–11 alphanumeric characters; no spaces, no symbols.
The rejection email and the Rejected badge on the portal include the specific reason — read that first, then click Edit & Resubmit.
Can I edit a sender name after it's been registered?
No. Once Active, a sender name is locked. If you need to change it, register a new sender name and let the old one expire or get revoked.
Who do I contact for help?
- Reply to any status email you've received — it threads back to our support team.
- Or email support@atomtelecom.com.au with the sender name + service ID.