Guidelines

Australia (AU)

We've compiled regulatory and compliance information to help ensure you're communicating effectively and compliantly around the world.

Locale Summary

Locale name

Australia

ISO code
The International Organization for Standardization two character representation for the given locale.

AU

Region

Oceania

Mobile country code
A three digit code associated with the given locale and used in conjunction with a Mobile Network Code to uniquely identify mobile networks.

505

Dialing code
The dialing prefix used to establish a call or send an SMS from one locale to the given locale.

+61

Guidelines

Two-way SMS supported
Whether Twilio supports two-way SMS in the given locale.

Yes

Number portability available
Whether number portability is available in a given locale

Yes

Twilio concatenated message support
Concatenation refers to the capability of splitting a message that is too long to be sent in one SMS into smaller pieces and then joining the pieces at the receiving end so that the receiver sees the message as one. 

Yes*
For certain sender ID types this may not be supported. Where messages are split and rejoined may vary based on character encoding.

Message length
How many characters can be sent given a particular message encoding before the message will be split into concatenated segments.

Inbound: GSM 3.38=160, Unicode=70 Outbound: GSM 3.38=160, Unicode=70

Twilio MMS support
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) provides a standards-based means to send pictures and video to mobile phones.

Supported

Sending SMS to landline numbers
How Twilio handles an SMS message destined for landline telephone number.

You cannot send SMS to a landline destination number: the Twilio REST API will throw a 400 response with error code 21614, the message will not appear in the logs, and the account will not be charged.

Compliance considerations
Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to make sure that they comply with all applicable laws. This table lists some general best practices.

Effective April 25, 2023, dynamic Alphanumeric Sender IDs won’t be allowed in Australia. All Alphanumeric Sender IDs must be pre-registered to send messages in Australia. Messages sent using Alphanumeric Sender IDs that aren’t pre-registered by April 25, 2023 may be blocked. To pre-register with Twilio, head over to https://console.twilio.com/us1/develop/phone-numbers/sender-ids/applications/create to provide the necessary proof that you are entitled to use the Alphanumeric Sender ID and other documents. 

Message delivery to M2M numbers is on best effort basis only.

Twilio strongly encourages customers to review proposed use cases with qualified legal counsel to ensure they comply with all applicable laws. Sending gambling, firearms, and cannabus related content is strictly prohibited in Australia.

Unsolicited Communication: All commercial electronic messages sent to an electronic address in Australia are beholden to the SPAM Act (2003). It is a partner’s responsibility to familiarize yourself with this legislation and ensure your compliance; the key rules relating to this can be found at https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/spam-industry-obligations and below: - Permission (consent)—messages can only be sent with the permission of the person who owns the account for the address (usually the recipient). - Identification—messages must contain the name and contact details of the person or business that authorized the message (sender identification). - Unsubscribe—messages must contain a low (or no cost) way for the recipient to stop getting messages (to ‘opt out’ or unsubscribe).

The following are some general best practices:

  1. Get opt-in consent from each end user before sending any communication to them, particular for marketing or other non-essential communications.
  2. Only communicate during an end user's daytime hours unless it is urgent.
  3. SMS campaigns should support HELP/STOP messages, and similar messages, in the end user's local language.
  4. Do not contact end users on do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries.

Phone Numbers & Sender ID

Alphanumeric
 

Global Pre-registration

Dynamic

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Required

There is no segregation between International and Domestic Traffic

Not Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Not Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

Yes

Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

5 business days

N/A

UCS-2 support

Supported

Use case restrictions

N/A

Only Alphanumeric Sender ID registered with Twilio will be allowed from 25 April 2023. All non-registered Alphanumeric Sender IDs will be blocked.

Best practices

All customers must pre-register Alphanumeric Sender ID with Twilio, providing the necessary proof that they are entitled to use the Alphanumeric Sender ID

Only send from pre-registered Alphanumeric Sender IDs.

Please review the Compliance Considerations for more details. 

Long codes and short codes
 

Long code domestic

Long code international

Short code

Operator network capability
Whether mobile operators in the given country support the feature.

Supported

Supported

Supported

Twilio supported
Whether Twilio supports the feature for the given country.

Supported

Supported

Not Supported

Sender ID preserved
In some countries sender IDs for certain sender types are not preserved and are changed for compliance and/or deliverability reasons. In these countries mobile subscribers will see a different ‘from sender ID’ than the one sent by you.

Yes

Yes

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Provisioning time
Provisioning is the process of getting the sender ID approved and registered with mobile networks (depending on country requirements). Provisioning time is how long this process takes in the given country.

N/A

N/A

N/A

UCS-2 support

Supported

Supported

N/A

Use case restrictions

N/A

N/A

N/A

Best practices

N/A

N/A

N/A


For the benefit of all our customers, these guidelines are provided to help you comply with applicable requirements and to help ensure Twilio's platform remains compliant with global telecommunications ecosystem requirements. These guidelines represent our current understanding of common compliance requirements generally applicable to Twilio and its customers, and do not constitute legal advice. By posting these guidelines, Twilio makes no assurances regarding the legal compliance of your application built using our APIs. You are expected to understand and abide by all compliance obligations applicable to your specific application. You should check these pages regularly for updates as telecommunications ecosystem requirements continue to evolve and change, and the information below may be updated or changed without notice.