Canada SMS Features and Restrictions

Country Summary

Sender ID Guidelines

Restricted Content

All CAN Numbers traffic adheres to the CTA guidelines. For more information, see the CTA Handbook Guidelines.

Disallowed Content: 

• High-risk financial services
  Payday/cash advance loans • Short term loans (unless from direct lender bank) • Auto loans • Stock alerts • Mortgage loans • Student loans • Debt collection (unless for company sending message) • Lead or commission generation • Tax relief programs • Cryptocurrency
• Get rich quick schemes
  Deceptive work from home programs • Secret shopper ad campaigns • Risk investment opportunities • Multi-level affiliate marketing • Gambling/sweepstakes
• 3rd party
  Debt collection or consolidation • Debt relief or reduction • Debt forgiveness • Credit repair • Lead generation • Generic job alerts • Brokers
• Controlled substances
  Tobacco • Vaping • Cannabis/CBD • Illegal drugs
• SHAFT
  Sex • Hate speech • Alcohol • Firearms • Tobacco • Profanity
• Scams
  Phishing • Fraud • Spam • Deceptive marketing
• Charity
  Giving donations (case by case)

The CTA imposes several restrictions on the content of CSC messaging. These include:

1. Sexual or adult content
2. Short Codes sending messages on behalf of more than one brand
3. Cannabis or cannabis-related messaging, including CBD. Wireless service providers and the CTA will assess applications related to cannabis or CBD on a case-by-case basis.
4. Campaigns dealing with age-restricted content, such as alcohol and gambling, are allowed but will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the CTA. All CSC programs related to age-restricted content must also include an age verification mechanism. For example, the programs must ask consumers to verify whether they are of legal age.
5. CSC programs should not be used to encourage people to access content that promotes illegal activities such as copyright infringement or piracy.
6. Messages sent to consumers must be at most 320 characters, equivalent to two SMS messages, unless otherwise agreed to by the CTA.

Infractions Guide and Severity Levels

Infractions are categorized as Severity 1, 2, 3, or 4 with Severity 1 being the most severe. For more details, please refer to this guide. 

Severity 1 Infraction Enforcement – Quick Summary

• CSC Suspension – Program must be suspended within 24 hours.
• Root-Cause Analysis – Submit within 3 business days; carriers review and decide on next steps (e.g., updates, dismissal, suspension, or deprovisioning).
• Appeal Option – Penalties can be appealed; carrier decisions are final.
• Reinstatement – Suspension lifted only after updates/testing or dismissal.

Repeat Violations (e.g., 3+ in 12 months)

Carriers may:

• Cancel all related CSCs
• Ban the content provider
• Throttle aggregator traffic

The information above is only for Severity 1 refractions. Please reference the guide above for more information about other severity levels. 

Other Features or Restrictions

• Majority of the main carriers support handset DLRs. 

Canada SMS Delivery Options

*) throughput can be increased on a case by case basis

Additional Information

For Specific Features and Restrictions for each type of number see the following articles:

• Canada LVN Long Virtual Number - Local Area Code Numbers
• Canada Short Codes 5-6 digit numbers used only for SMS & MMS
• Canada Toll-Free
• Global SMS Features Overview (Outbound-Only)
• Global SMS Numbers Features Overview

There are no additional content restrictions beyond those in our Acceptable Use Policy.