Sinch Community

Effective October 15, 2024, CTIA and the US Short Code Registry introduced a new requirement for leasing new short codes or when manually renewing short code leases, necessitating all brands to undergo vetting. Aegis Mobile has partnered with CTIA to authenticate the identities of brands utilizing US short codes. This vetting process provides additional transparency for brands involved with each short code campaign, benefiting all stakeholders. It also offers greater protection for consumers and upholds the short code's reputation as a trusted messaging channel. 

Brands will only need to be vetted once and short code leasing will be available only after a successful vetting result. In the event of a lease transfer, the brand will need to submit a new vetting request with the new lease holder. There is no additional charge to this new feature and it will not impact short code throughput.

The following Brand Client information will be required:  

• Legal Company Name
• Legal Entity Type
• Doing Business As
• Country of Registration
• Stock Market Symbol
• Company Website URL
• Federal Tax ID
• DUNS, GIIN, LEI (if applicable)
• Brand Client Address
• Country
• Street Address
• City
• State/Province
• Zip/Postal Code
• Brand Client Point of Contact
• First Name
• Last Name
• Phone Number
• Email

How about existing short codes?

Brand client details for existing short codes that is on auto-renewal will be required to undergo the new vetting process by Q1 2025. Brands will have sixty (60) days after the auto-renewal date of the short code to complete the required fields. Short codes that are not updated within that timeframe will be subject to non-compliance audit and may be suspended or terminated.

Sinch has started collecting this information. Please contact your account manager if you have any questions.

Vetting Process Overview

Upon submission of the Brand Client information, the vetting party will review the following triage criteria:

• Legal name matches FEIN
• Brand POC contact email is valid
• Brand POC email domain relate to the company’s published URL
• If triage criteria are not met, an incomplete status will be issued without further processing

Once triaged criteria are met, the Brand’s Point of Contact (POC) will receive an email from CTIA’s vetting partner, Aegis Mobile (certify@aegismobile.com). This email will contain a PIN and instructions on how to complete the registration. Be sure to check your junk mail folder.

The PIN is valid for 7 days. A reminder email will be sent 48 hours before the PIN expires. If the initial PIN expires, Aegis Mobile will issue a second and final PIN.

While the Brand POC completes the PIN verification, the vetting party will continue to review the remaining brand client details at the same time.

Vetting Statuses:

• Successful Status – Indicates that the vetting activities were completed with acceptable results. A Successful vet status is retained for up to a year, after which renewal vetting is required to continue participating in short code messaging.
• Incomplete Status – Indicates that certain critical information does not meet the minimum requirements for completing the vetting activity. If we are unable to provide the correct information within 10 days/2 additional resubmission attempts following the Incomplete status, the status will update to Unsuccessful.
• Unsuccessful Status – Indicates that either an incomplete vet status was not resolved or that risk levels were unallowable based on discovered past behaviors.

Tips to a Successful Vetting Results

• Ensure that the Federal Tax ID matches the exact Legal Company Name registered with the IRS.
• Use FEIN and Legal Company Name shown on the first line of CP-575/EIN Confirmation Letter.
• The address entered should also match what is registered with the IRS. If the information does not exactly match the EIN Confirmation Letter, your brand will be in an Incomplete state and you will not be able to lease the short code until the issue is resolved.
• Ensure email address and website URLL provided matches the company being vetted.

For entities with international presence, please specify the Tax ID and the country of registration. For entities in Canada, please provide the first 9 numeric digits of the Business Number (BN-9) when providing brand client details.

US Tax ID, company name and address can be validated using the following resources:

• Public business entities: Public business lookup (EDGAR) 
• Nonprofit entities: IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search
• Private business entities: If you are a private business in the US, here is a list of private business lookup by state: 

Canadian Tax ID, company name and address can be validated using the following resources:

• Canada business registries search
• Canada federal corporation search

Europe, Eastern Europe, North Atlantic, Middle East, South America, and APAC Tax ID, company name and address can be validated using the following resources:

• Europe: VIES VAT number validation - European Commission
• Australia: Australian Business Register (ABN) lookup Note: provide your ABN (Australian Business Number) not your ACN (Australian Company Number) as your Tax ID for brand registration purposes.

For more information, please check out CTIA and The Short Code Registry's FAQs page or their summary below: