CANADA SMS: Products and Compliance

Opt In Requirements: 
 

• All receiving recipients must be opted in to receive the content they have signed up for.
• Senders must be able to provide opt in methods if there is a carrier request.
• Sending to purchased/imported lists of recipients who have not opted in is not allowed.

Opt Out and Help Requirements: 
 

• Customers will be responsible for all opt out, “STOP, END, INFO, AIDE, ARRET, CANCEL” and “HELP”, commands that are sent from their clients.
• If “STOP, END, CANCEL, and ARRET” is received, the number must be blocked from receiving additional SMS from the Sender ID.
• If “HELP, INFO, or AIDE” is received, the sender must respond with an email or contact number of the sender id.

Sender ID Header Requirement: 
 

• All SMS must have their identification name in the header of the message.
• Example: If “8x8” is the brand name, the messaging format must be: “8x8: Hello this is a message from 8x8.”

Prohibited Content: 
 

• Carriers prohibit SMS messaging when it is unsolicited commercial content and considers this content to be "spam".

The following types of messaging on all SMS messaging products are all prohibited: 
 

• Content or links to content related to sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, or tobacco
• Fraud and Phishing: Attempts to gain unauthorized access or username/password data Password or PII (Personally Identifiable Information) gathering, if it's illegal, it's not allowed
• Impersonation: Impersonating a brand and/or identity of someone or something, using brand names or marks without the consent of the brand

Discouraged A2P Sending: 
 

• Spam, phishing or malicious Messaging
• Number Sharing
• Number/URL Cycling
• Snowshoe Messaging
• Grey Route Messaging
• Artificial Traffic inflation fraud
• Spoofing

DND is enabled.

Compliance with mandatory keywords in CA as well as bi-lingual support of mandatory keywords. 

You can send promotional advertisements and other broadcast messages only to subscribers who have specifically opted-in to receive such messages.

• Long Code (dedicated number) standard 10-digit phone numbers that are used to send and receive text messages and handle voice calls.
• Dedicated/FTEU Short Code
• Toll-Free All programs must be in both English and French If they are primarily in Canada, using only French is acceptable.
• 8x8 currently offers 3 types of Sender ID channels: Short/TFEU Codes, Long Codes, and Toll-Free
• All SMS programs must be in English and French. If they are primarily in Canada, using only French is acceptable.

Dedicated Short Code:

• Short Codes are carrier approved programs, all short code programs are verified and tested by the carriers before they are live.
• Short Codes offer superior speed and reliability.
• Short Code routes support binary and Unicode encoding, and delivery receipts.
• Short Codes are short 5+ numeric codes (ex. 11111), easy to remember and dedicated.
• Short Code supports GSM 7-bit default alphabet and extension table - 3GPP TS 23.038

Free To End User Short Code (FTEU)

• Offers the same feature as Dedicated Short Code.
• The owner of the Free to End User Short code will be responsible for all costs (inbound and outbound).

Long Code

• Long Codes are standard 10 digit numbers that are text enabled for SMS
• Long Codes are best used for one to one messaging or services messages.
• When used for high volume, more Long Codes may be required in order to process all messages.
• Special characters are not supported.
• Repeated Links and prohibited content are blocked by the carriers.
• Long Code supports binary and Unicode encoding Long Code does not support delivery receipts. Long Code supports GSM 7-bit default alphabet and extension table - 3GPP TS 23.038

Toll-Free

• Toll-Free support binary and Unicode encoding, and delivery receipts.
• Both inbound and outbound SMS will be billed. Toll-Free has higher speeds and throughputs over Long Codes.
• Toll-Free content must be whitelisted before a number can go live.
• Public URL shorteners are not allowed and will be blocked by the carriers.
• Rotation of Toll-Free numbers will result in carrier blocks.
• Toll-Free supports GSM 7-bit default alphabet and extension table - 3GPP TS 23.038