Canada and the USA both have very specific messaging restrictions and a direct connection is necessary in order to ensure message delivery to the numerous networks. Nexmo uses an extremely high-quality, direct connection in order to deliver your SMS to Canada.
Sender ID
All SMS sent to Canada must originate from either a U.S. or Canadian pre-approved long number that is associated with your Nexmo account. Alpha sender IDs are not supported.
Limited numeric sender only --> In the “from” field you need to specify your pre-approved Canadian (or US) virtual number in international format e.g. 18479121345. Otherwise your message will get rejected with the API response code 15 Illegal Sender Address - rejected.
You can purchase pre-approved long virtual numbers very inexpensively from the Numbers tab in your Nexmo dashboard.
Content
P2P: Person-to-Person traffic may be sent to Canada from a long virtual number using our SMS API. An SMS may originate from a mobile phone, a computer application or an internet-based service, but the message must have been initiated due to human interaction.
A2P: Application-to-Person (A2P) traffic may be sent to Canada, using our Alerts Short code API.
CA Short Codes
- Short Code routes support handset delivery receipts and unicode encoding, long/concatenated messaging on most carriers.
- There is no daily maximum of messages per day restriction on our short code routes and API requests will use your overall throughput allocation.
Other features/restrictions of note:
Delivery Receipts:
- All carriers send handset delivery receipts except Eastlink.
- Intermediate DLR (accepted status) will be provided as soon as the message reaches the operator's platform.
Maximum throughput:
- You may send a maximum of 1 SMS per second per virtual number (whether long virtual number or toll-free)
Concatenation:
- Bell Mobility does not support proper concatenation in Canada. They tend to fuse messages rather than split them in order such as 1 of 2 and 2 of 2. They often cut out the middle of a long message and then fuse it all together. This is because they are on an older platform. This also applies to Bell MVNO's.
US Short code API:
- Reach:
- Our U.S. pre-approved short code API can reach Canada destinations for 2FA and Alerts
- Sender ID:
- Sender ID will be automatically changed to a long number to ensure delivery.
- Delivery Receipts:
- You will receive network delivery receipts instead of handset DLR’s when sending to Canada.
- Throughput:
- The SMS will also be queued to match the one SMS per second throughput limit for long numbers in Canada.
U.S. Toll free Virtual numbers:
- Reach:
- Toll Free numbers can deliver to all Canada carriers except Freedom Mobile.
- Freedom Mobile is supported via dedicated short codes.
- Toll Free numbers are not permitted to send A2P traffic by the Canadian operators therefore all traffic must follow P2P rules. We are working with the Canadian operators but do not have a timetable for a full A2P solution.
- Delivery Receipts:
- You will receive network delivery receipts instead of handset DLR’s when sending to Canada.
- Throughput:
- You may send a maximum of 1 SMS per second and per Toll Free number to Canada due to local carrier regulations.
- Rotating TFN’s is against Carrier Best Practices and will result in traffic getting blocked by the carriers.
- It is suggested not to exceed 500 messages per day and per Toll Free number in Canada.
- Price:
- You will be charged for outbound and inbound SMS.
- You will be charged for outbound and inbound SMS.
Long virtual numbers:
- Reach:
- Long virtual numbers can deliver to all Canada carriers
- Sender ID:
- Limited numeric sender only --> In the “from” field you need to specify your pre-approved Canadian (or US) virtual number in international format e.g. 18479121345. Otherwise your message will get rejected with reject code 15 Illegal Sender Address - rejected.
- You can purchase pre-approved long virtual numbers very inexpensively from the Numbers tab in your Nexmo dashboard.
- Delivery Receipts:
- You will receive network delivery receipts instead of handset DLR’s when sending to Canada. See chart below for delivery receipts and supported carriers.
- Content:
- Binary, VCard, unicode and long SMS are not supported by Canadian carriers.
- Euro symbol (€) and some accented characters are not supported by Canadian Carriers.
- Throughput:
- You may send a maximum of 1 SMS per second and per virtual number in Canada due to local carriers regulations. If you send messages more quickly, the message(s) will be rejected. If you require higher throughput, you can purchase more numbers and spread your traffic across your numbers. E.g. 10 numbers = 10 SMS per second.
- Maximum of roughly 500 messages per day and per long virtual number. If this is exceeded your number will be blocked and will no longer work.
- For high through put needs a dedicated short code would be the optimal solution.
Links:
Global SMS Features Overview (Outbound only)
Global SMS Numbers Features Overview
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Canadian Carriers Delivery Receipt Support |
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Carrier |
Gateway accepted/rejected |
Carrier Ack/Nack |
Handset delivery receipt |
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Bell Mobility |
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Fido |
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Rogers + Vidéotron |
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Telus Mobility + Koodo |
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SaskTel Mobility |
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Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) |
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Aliant Mobility |
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Virgin Mobile CA |
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NorthernTel Mobility |
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Télébec Mobilité |
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Vidéotron 3G |
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Freedom Mobile |
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Eastlink |
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