Statement: Business messaging - Review of the A2P SMS termination market

Phones and broadband Mobile phones Consultations and statements

Published: 28 January 2025

Consultation closes: 8 April 2025

Status: Statement Published (Closed)

Last updated: 31 October 2025

Statement: Published 31 October 2025

Application-to-person (A2P) SMS are automated text messages sent by businesses and public bodies to individuals, for example, appointment reminders, one-time passcodes, and parcel delivery notifications.

In early 2025, we launched a market review in relation to the termination services provided by mobile operators to Aggregators to deliver A2P SMS to their subscribers. We consulted on proposals to impose a price cap on termination rates to apply until the end of 2028.

In October 2025, Ofcom received voluntary commitments from four large mobile operators - BT/EE, Sky, Virgin Media O2 and VodafoneThree – relating to their pricing of A2P SMS termination. These voluntary commitments will remain in place until the end of 2028 and we estimate that they collectively cover over 90% of the market.

We’ve also taken into account market developments since the publication of our consultation, which increase uncertainty over future competitive constraints. This includes recent price reductions by WhatsApp for Business (an alternative business messaging service), and signs of growing interest among some large senders in other business messaging services.

Given these developments, we have taken the administrative policy decision not to continue with our market review at this time.

We will continue to monitor the market and can intervene in future if necessary.

On 28 March 2025, we published a correction note (which we then revised on 29 April 2025) in relation to the consultation titled ‘Business messaging: Review of the A2P SMS termination market’ of 28 January 2025 to correct how the volumes of WhatsApp Business conversations and Rich Communication Services Business Messaging ('RBM') compared to the A2P SMS volumes in 2023/2024. Meta has now reported errors in the information it provided in response to a July 2024 Request for Information about the volumes of WhatsApp Business conversations sold, such that we have withdrawn that note and replaced it with the new 22 September 2025 correction note. For the avoidance of any doubt, the amendments set out in this note include the correction relating to the volumes of RBM that we first made in March 2025.