Companies that send SMS messages to customers in Spain now have a regulatory deadline to comply with; an order introduced by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Service in February 2025 has been progressively implemented since its announcement, and will be fully enforced by June this year.
Order TDF/149/2025 establishes the creation of an SMS Alias Registry managed by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) as part of broader measures to combat impersonation scams.
In this, an alias is defined as the name that appears on a corporate SMS – “BBVA,” “Correos,” “Zara.” Until now, virtually anyone could use any name, but the new regulation obliges companies to register their aliases in advance with the CNMC, while operators will be required to block messages sent from those unregistered.
The regulation arrives in the context of widespread mistrust. According to Spain’s CIS public research center, 47% of Spaniards have been victims or targets of a cyber scam in the past year, and 73% believe it is harder to protect their personal data online than to secure their own homes.
Now, companies that are not registered before June will find their legitimate communications blocked alongside fraudulent ones – there is no automatic distinction between a scammer and a brand that simply registered too late.
This problem is not new, nor uniquely Spanish. Global providers such as Twilio, Sinch, and Vonage have been operating for years under similar frameworks in the United States through the A2P 10DLC program, and in the United Kingdom – where sender registration has been mandatory since September 2023.
In both markets, companies that waited until the last moment faced operational blocks and business losses, while those which prepared early improved their delivery rates as the channel regained credibility.
“Many companies are still not fully aware of the real scope of the change,” warned Diego Rodríguez, head of LINK Mobility Spain, one of the authorized providers already managing registrations.
“The timelines are demanding, and the circular that will define the operational details is not yet final, which creates some uncertainty,” he told 150sec.
When companies begin auditing their aliases, they often discover that their messaging architecture grew without planning: one alias for notifications, another for marketing, several more for different brands or business lines, and none designed with legal ownership verification in mind.
Conflicts emerge that were previously invisible: aliases shared between companies in the same corporate group, names that do not exactly match registered trademarks, and generic senders used by everyone but formally claimed by no one.
“Building engagement with your customers should be as seamless and trustworthy as possible,” said Inbal Shani, Chief Product Officer at Twilio, when presenting the company’s global rollout of Rich Communication Services (RCS).
“This represents a fundamental shift in how businesses can communicate with their customers,” added Shani.
The regulation also includes RCS, the technology gradually replacing traditional SMS by allowing for messages to include images, interactive buttons, and read receipts.
For recipients, the difference is invisible: both SMS and RCS are delivered in the same mobile app, under the same sender name. Lawmakers, however, explicitly included RCS to close that loophole: if the registry had covered only traditional SMS, fraud would have lively migrated to the richer format without encountering any barrier.
The path to compliance has three steps. First, companies must audit how many aliases they use and confirm legal ownership of each. Second, select a registration provider authorized by the CNMC – the only valid channel for managing the process. And third, begin registration before the backlock of requests slow down approvals.
For years, SMS has operated like a road without traffic signs, where any vehicle could travel under any identity. The registry, now, is installing those signs.
In the end, it’s an opportunity for a communications competitive advantage: firms that register early will avoid roadblocks and communicate in a channel where their messages carry the credibility their slower competitors’ will lack.
Featured image: Philip Oroni via Unsplash+