On 20 March 2024, Nexus Polytech provided a response to the consultation paper published by the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts titled Fighting SMS Scams – What type of SMS sender ID registry should be introduced in Australia? on February 2024.
As a solutions architecture and consultancy service provider who has developed and implemented solutions that helped clients utilise alphanumeric sender IDs to publicly communicate with their clients via SMS, Nexus Polytech was in a position to provide experience rich responses to the consultation process.
Feedback was provided with the view of ensuring that small-medium businesses and not-for-profits were not inadvertently disadvantaged by the process.
An underlying theme in the feedback provided within this submission is leveraging implementations and solutions in other technologies and communication methods.
Sender verification and allocation of identifiers is a common issue prevalent in numerous technologies, such as IP addresses, domain names, and email communication. Lessons can be learned from how industry and the wider community responded to these issues through other technologies and implemented inspired solutions to tackle SMS scams.
We wish to thank the Minister and the Department for the opportunity to provide feedback on the implementation of an alphanumeric sender ID registry for SMS. The abuse of alphanumeric Sender IDs by bad actors has sharply risen in the last few years, and this reform and opportunity to comment is very much welcomed.
The response can be accessed using the below link.
