Through the Partner Program, CTIA identifies the most knowledgeable service providers in the messaging space. Partners fall into two types: Application Service Providers or Direct Connection Aggregators. Partners are divided into three levels depending on how many short codes they lease in a year.

When building a short codes campaign, it's important to be in compliance with industry best practices. The following resources are all designed to help organizations of all types run compliant campaigns.

Effective: October 2024 This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) governs your use of Short Codes, your registration of Short Codes, and any Short Code campaigns that use Short Codes registered to you or used by you. As used in this AUP, the term "you" or “your” refers to any party that registers a Short Code; operates a campaign that uses a Short Code; a party that sells the goods or services advertised with a Short Code; or any other user or advertiser of a Short Code, and their employees and agents.

Effective: October 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

At least once annually, CTIA’s Vetting Agents vet all short code leaseholders, their Brand Clients and associated Content Providers with the Registry Vetting process. During the vetting process, the company name, corporate registration, compliance history, and legal history are validated separately for each entity using the data fields entered into the registry application.

Updated March 2025

Learn the fundamentals of SMS or short code marketing: best practices, how to select a code, and how to create a breakthrough campaign.

Organizations across the U.S. are quickly recognizing the value short code communication can bring to their digital outreach.

For sending information and notifications throughout a community, short codes are accessible, immediate, and easy to use.