SMS Sender ID Registry

Organisations using SMS Sender IDs need to register now

ComReg recently issued emails to many organisations to complete the registration process. Your contact details and Sender ID may have been provided during a pre-registration process by your SMS provider. Please follow the instructions in the email you may have received to activate your Sender ID Owners Account. You will need to confirm the SMS provider is authorised to send SMS messages on your behalf.

From 3 July 2025, unregistered SMS Sender IDs will be modified to ‘Likely Scam’ to alert the recipient to be cautious of the content of those text messages.

From 3 October 2025, text messages from unregistered SMS Sender IDs will be blocked and those messages will not reach the recipient.

Background

SMS is universally accessible and allows mobile phone users to send and receive plain text messages. In 2024, 2.3 billion texts were sent in Ireland.

Unfortunately, text message scams are seriously undermining the SMS communications channel in Ireland, with consumers and organisations losing trust in SMS. Research estimates the quantifiable harm to consumer and businesses in Ireland from scam texts is €115 million.

What is an SMS Sender ID?

Many organisations rely on Application-To-Person (A2P) SMS text messaging to communicate with their customers, clients and members.

A2P SMS messages often include an alphanumeric originating address (e.g., 234BANK) to indicate who sent the message – this is called the SMS Sender ID. SMS Sender IDs differ from phone numbers as they also include letters and/or permitted characters (e.g., space, hyphen, comma).

What is the SMS Sender ID Registry?

ComReg is now introducing an intervention to help prevent some types of scam SMS messages – this is the SMS Sender ID Registry (‘Registry’).

The Registry is a secure repository of registered SMS Sender IDs, registered Sender ID Owners (SIDOs), Participating Mobile Service Providers (MSPs) and Participating Aggregators (PAs). Participants must adhere to the rules of operation of the Registry.

Please note, the Registry is only for registering alphanumeric Sender IDs. If you are a business using 5-digit SMS short codes (e.g. 53xxx, 57xxx etc.) you do not need to register these codes here. Please refer to the separate registration for short codes here. You do not need to register your mobile phone number.

Information for Organisations using SMS Sender IDs

If your organisation uses an SMS Sender ID, you need to register with ComReg now.

Many existing SMS Sender IDs were pre-registered by Mobile Service Providers and SMS Aggregators during an industry process in late 2024 and early 2025.

Organisations can check if their SMS Sender ID has been pre-registered here.

If your SMS Sender ID has been pre-registered, we will contact your organisation by email to validate your SMS Sender ID. This is a crucial step to ensure that only valid and legitimate SMS Sender IDs are registered.

When we have validated and registered your SMS Sender ID, we will inform you by email that your SMS Sender ID has been fully registered.

If your SMS Sender ID has not been registered yet, there is still time to do this, but you need to act quickly before July 2025. Register your SMS Sender ID directly here.

SMS Sender ID registration is currently free and ComReg will register SMS Sender IDs on a First Come, First Served basis.

All new SMS Sender IDs must also be registered with ComReg.

Information for SMS Providers (Mobile Service Providers and SMS Aggregators)

Inform your customers that all SMS Sender IDs for use in A2P text messages to mobile users in Ireland now need to be registered with ComReg.

MSPs and Participating Aggregators may register SMS Sender IDs on behalf of their customers’ organisations.

How SMS texts are changing

Unregistered SMS Sender IDs will be modified to ‘Likely Scam’ from 3 July 2025 to alert consumers that the text message may not be genuine.

Do not click on any links or call any numbers contained in these text messages without independently verifying that they are authentic.

From 3 October 2025, text messages from unregistered SMS Sender IDs will be blocked and consumers will not receive those text messages.

 

Registry Q&A

This Q&A section is provided to assist the users of the Registry.