Until now, bulk SMS was officially not supported by US operators when using long codes (VMNs) as the originator and messages were filtered and blocked if deemed of a bulk nature. On March 1, 2021 changes to national messaging regulations will come into effect in the United States with the introduction of 10DLC. In this article we will discuss the below topics:

• What is 10DLC and what changes for me?
  • Update August 2021
• What are my other options?
• What use cases are accepted?
• What are additional costs associated with 10DLC?
  • Additional Registration Charges 
  • Additional Carrier Pass-through Fees
• What information do I need to gather?
• How can I set up my 10DLC?

Please also have a look at our Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of this page to find out more about using 10DLC: 

• What are the available throughput limits on 10DLC?
• What steps does MessageBird take to register the Brand and Campaign Brief in the Registry?
• How do the Identification and Verification of Brands work?
• My Brand has Unverified Status. How can I re-submit the correct info?
• How does my Brand Verification Status affect my throughput and traffic volume?
• My company is not part of the Russell 3000 Index but we need higher throughput. How can we apply for it?
• What is the cheapest solution to send SMS to the US?
• Can I use the same number for multiple use cases?
• How many numbers, brands and use cases can I associate with one another?
• How can I cancel my 10DLC subscription?

 

What is 10DLC and what changes for me?

10DLC is a local 10-digit phone number that requires campaign registration and supports throughput levels suitable for SMS campaigns - up to 30 Messages Per Second (MPS). 10DLC is sanctioned by the mobile carriers for A2P messaging and changes are meant to provide a reliable user experience, better deliverability and higher messaging speed. In the coming months, MessageBird will start registering customers for 10DLC. All current and future MessageBird customers will have to adapt to the new 10DLC requirements starting March 1, and must be registered no later than June 1, 2021.

Customers should be aware of the following changes:

• Your brands, and messaging campaigns per use case, should be registered and approved before going live in the US. You will find a step-by-step guide of what is expected of you below.
• US numbers can no longer be shared by different brands/customers. If you are sending from multiple brands, each brand will need to have their own dedicated 10DLC.
• US carriers have introduced additional charges for brand and use case registrations as well as carrier fees per message. Changes to pricing will be explained below.
• Each 10DLC will be allowed to send 30 MPS with a total volume of 200,000 messages a day, however carriers will determine the actual throughput after registration. More information on this below.
• The US regulator will have better control over message content and practices. For you to navigate this, the CTIA has a guideline with Messaging Principles and Best Practices which explains minimum requirements and forbidden practices or content.

Update August 2021

In the first half of 2021, changes to national messaging regulations have come into effect in the United States with the introduction of 10DLC. Please note: below info is subject to change in the coming months, as operators are still finalising details on their side.

NOTE: Unregistered traffic via 10DLC will continue to be subject to P2P spam policies and traffic throughput restrictions.

T-Mobile update: Carrier pass-through fees went into effect on April 1, 2021. However, Special Business Reviews and Campaign Activation fees have been postponed and will go into effect on 1 October. Please see more information below on costs: What are additional costs associated with 10DLC?

AT&T update: AT&T has extended the registration grace period until further notice. As a result, AT&T is temporarily offering discounted SMS and MMS carrier pass-through fees during this registration grace period. The same discounted fees apply to unregistered traffic. AT&T will provide a 30-day notice ahead of any effective carrier fee changes.

 

What are my other options?

MessageBird offers several number types for sending to the US. Depending on your use case, there are different number types that might suit your company better. For more information please see here: US Number Options 

Note that in order to send SMS successfully to the United States, you must use one of the number options listed in the above article.

 

What use cases are accepted?

Standard Use Cases may be available shortly after the use case registration for all qualified registered Brands and do not require vetting or pre/post approval by Mobile Network Operators.

• 2FA - Any authentication, verification, or one-time passcode
• Account Notifications - Standard notifications for account holders, relating to and being about an account
• Customer Care - All customer interaction, including account management and customer support
• Delivery Notifications - Information about the status of the delivery of a product or service
• Fraud Alert Messaging - Messaging regarding potential fraudulent activity on an account
• Higher Education - Campaigns created on behalf of Colleges or Universities. It also includes School Districts and education institutions that fall outside of any "free to the consumer" messaging model
• Marketing - Any communication with marketing and/or promotional content
• Polling and voting - Requests for surveys and voting for non political arenas
• Public Service Announcement - An informational message that is meant to raise the audience's awareness about an important issue
• Security Alert - A notification that the security of a system, either software or hardware, has been compromised in some way and there is an action you need to take
• Demo accounts - Small throughput for testing and demos only. 

 

Special Use Cases are sensitive or critical in nature and may require vetting or pre/post registration approval by Mobile Network Operators. Requirements may vary according to each MNO.

Use cases requiring post-registration approval by MNOs
These use cases may be approved during campaign registration, but are still subject to a check done by the MNOs themselves. It is possible that your campaign is registered, but the MNO rejects your use cas, which means you will not be able to send traffic.

• Carrier Exemptions - Exemption by Carrier. 
• Charity - Communications from a registered charity aimed at providing help and raising money for those in need. Includes: 5013C Charity. Does not include: Religious organisations. 
• Conversational Messaging - Peer-to-peer app-based group messaging with proxy/pooled numbers. Supporting personalised services and non-exposure of personal numbers for enterprise or A2P communications. This means that this use case can only be selected if you are using number masking in your communication.
• Sweepstakes - All sweepstakes and ‘giveaways’ messaging. 

Use cases only available for pre-approved Communications Service Providers

• Emergency - Notification services designed to support public safety / health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics and other national or regional emergencies. 
• Social - Non-commercial communication within or between closed communities. (e.g. churches communicating with parishioners). 

Use cases only available for pre-vetted brands

• Political - Part of organised effort to influence decision making of specific groups. All campaigns to be verified. Only federal campaigns. 

What are additional costs associated with 10DLC?

Please note below info is subject to change in the coming months, as operators are still finalising details on their side.

T-Mobile requires brand and use case registrations. It has extended the registration grace period until 1 October. T-Mobile is charging carrier fees for SMS and MMS, but Special Business Reviews and Campaign Activation fees have been postponed until 1 October 2021. 

AT&T requires brand and use case registrations. It has extended the registration grace period until further notice. As a result, AT&T offers discounted SMS and MMS carrier pass-through fees during this registration grace period. The same discounted fees apply to unregistered traffic. AT&T will provide a 30-day notice ahead of any effective carrier fee changes.

Verizon doesn’t require brand and use case registrations. The carrier pass-through fees are added to MessageBird’s outbound rates. Verizon is using filters to block any traffic it deems to be a spam risk. This carrier has not communicated any plans to limit throughput for 10DLC use cases.

Both U.S. Cellular and TextNow also don’t require brand and use case registrations. The carrier pass-through fees are added to MessageBird’s outbound rates. They have not communicated any plans to limit throughput for 10DLC use cases.

 

Additional Registration Charges 

US operators have introduced additional charges for brand and use case registrations, which MessageBird will pass along to our customers, in USD:

Brand Registration Fee	Applicable to any brand which is currently not registered through MessageBird at the Campaign Registry	US$ 4 one-off
Brand Secondary Vetting Fee	Fee for Brand vetting. Secondary vetting is an additional brand review done by the carriers which may allow for higher throughput.	US$ 40 one-off
T-Mobile Use Case Registration Fee	T-Mobile Registration fee per declared messaging use case	US$50 one-off (waived until 1 October 2021)
10DLC Use Case Subscription Fee	Monthly cost applied to each active use case	US$10 - billed US$120/year. MessageBird requires a 12-month minimum commitment. Valid for most use cases. Low Volume Mixed - US$2 - billed US$24/year. MessageBird requires a 12-month minimum commitment. Charity - US$3 - billed US$36/year. MessageBird requires a 12-month minimum commitment. Emergency - US$5 - billed US$60/year. MessageBird requires a 12-month minimum commitment. Sole Proprietor - US$0.75 - billed US$9/year. MessageBird requires a 12-month minimum commitment.
T-Mobile Special Business Review fee	The following use cases qualify for special review request: Number Pooling — When your use case requires 50 or more 10DLC numbers associated with a given brand. Higher Daily Limit — A daily maximum volume exceeding 200,000 messages or more per brand	$5,000 one-off per request (waived until further notice)

 

Additional Carrier Pass-through Fees

There are additional Carrier* Pass-through fees per message on top of MessageBird message rates. These are being finalised by the operators and are subject to change. 

*Note: These additional costs will be added to current MessageBird message rates and monthly number rental fees. At this first moment, the invoices will not split the costs between MessageBird message rates and carrier pass-through fees. It will only show the sum of both costs. Message charges will continue to be: Base MessageBird message rate + Surcharge to destination carrier = Total message cost.

US Carrier Name	SMS / Carrier fee in USD	MMS / Carrier fee in USD	Message Direction
T-Mobile USA / Metro PCS / Sprint	$.0030	$.0100	Outbound & Inbound
T-Mobile USA / Metro PCS / Sprint Unregistered Traffic	$.0040	$.0130	Outbound & Inbound
AT&T	$.0020*	$.0035*	Outbound only
Verizon	$.0025	$.0050	Outbound only
U.S. Cellular	$.0050	$.0100	Outbound only
TextNow	$.0020	$.0020	Outbound only

*Discounted AT&T carrier fees until further notice. Also valid for unregistered traffic.

NOTE: Unregistered traffic via 10DLC will continue to be subject to P2P spam policies and traffic throughput restrictions. MessageBird recommends that all customers terminating messages via US 10DLC in the United States (and territories where these US carriers operate) register their Brands and Use Cases as soon as possible to avoid throttling and blocks. Registration will become mandatory soon.

 

What information do I need to gather?

In order to set up your 10DLC correctly you will need to register your Brand as well as create a Campaign Brief. Your Brand is the entity for which you are registering; you will register each use case within your Brand as a Campaign Brief. Below you will find the information we need from you to action each request:

Brand Registration

Item	Description
Legal company name	The official (legal) name of your business
DBA (Doing Business As) or Brand name	If brand name is different from legal name
Country of registration	Country where your business is registered
Tax ID/Employer Identification Number (EIN)	Companies based outside the US should provide a business identification number for their country
Website URL	URL of your company website
Company address	Physical address of your company
Type of company	Individual • Private Company • Publicly Traded Company • Charity or Non-Profit Organisation
If public company: stock symbol
If public company: stock exchange
Business Vertical	Agriculture • Communication and Mass Media • Construction and Materials • Education • Energy and Utilities • Entertainment • Financial • Gambling Lottery • Government • Healthcare • Hospitality and Travel • Insurance • Manufacturing • Non-Government Organization (NGO) • Real Estate • Retail • Information Technology
Contact details	Name, email and mobile number for representative

 

Campaign Brief

Item	Description
Use case	Standard: 2FA • Account Notifications • Customer Care • Delivery Notifications • Fraud Alert Messaging • Higher Education • Marketing • Polling and Voting • Public Service Announcement • Security Alert • Demo accounts Special: Carrier Exemptions • Charity • Conversational Messaging • Sweepstakes • Emergency • Social • Political
Campaign name
Campaign description	How will you use the 10DLC?
Sample message	A maximum of 5 samples can be provided
Campaign attributes - Subscriber opt-in Y/N	Are you collecting and processing consumers opt-in? For most informational alerts and promotional SMS programs, the end-user must give express permission before a business sends them a text message. End-users may give permission over text, on a form, on a website, verbally, or written permission. You may be requested to provide proof of opt-in mechanism.
Campaign attributes - Subscriber opt-out Y/N	Are you collecting and processing consumers opt-out? For most use cases, businesses must ensure that end-users have the ability to opt-out of receiving messages at any time. It can be supported via different mechanisms, including phone call, email, or text. Example: end-user replies with keyword STOP to unsubscribe. Then, the content provider sends a final message to confirm that the end-user was unsubscribed and no further messages will be sent. You may be requested to provide proof of opt-out mechanism.
Campaign attributes - Subscriber help Y/N	Have you implemented message reply providing consumers on how they can contact the  content provider for customer care?  Example: end-user replies with HELP for support. Customer care requires a toll-free number or email. You may be requested to provide proof of help mechanism.
Campaign attributes - Embedded link Y/N	Is there a URL in your message content? Public URL shorteners are not accepted.
Campaign attributes - Embedded phone Y/N	Are you using a phone number within your messages other than the required HELP contact phone number?
Campaign attributes - Number pooling Y/N	Are you using multiple 10DLC instead of a single number?
Campaign attributes - Age gated Y/N	For age-gated content. Example: an end-user is asked to put in their date of birth or otherwise represent their age before subscribing to an age-restricted messaging program. Please note that Messaging programs with SHAFT content (sex, hate speech, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco) are not allowed on any carrier network.
Campaign attributes - Direct lending Y/N	Is it related to money lending or loan arrangements?
Campaign attributes - Affiliate marketing Y/N	Is affiliate marketing being used or has it been used in the construction of this messaging program?
Associated 10DLC for your use case

Note: Are you a current MessageBird customer who is migrating your long-codes to the new 10DLC standard? If yes, please inform us which of your number(s) you would like to associate to each use case. This information can be shared via spreadsheet, if needed. e.g. +1 XXX XXXXXXX assigned to 2FA use case

 

How can I set up my 10DLC?

In order to set the 10DLC up for messaging, please follow the below steps:

1. Before applying for 10DLC Registration, make sure you have one (or more) dedicated 10DLC (US SMS Number) linked to your account. You can buy a Number in your Dashboard and you can read here how to buy a Number: Buy a Virtual Mobile Number (VMN)
2. Gather the information regarding both your Brand Registration as well as your Campaign Brief as outlined above. 
3. If you have multiple Campaigns, choose and note down which 10DLC will be used for each of your Campaigns. 
4. When you have the above information ready, you can apply for registration by completing this application form. 
5. You will receive an invoice for the registration costs. Once we have received payment we will proceed with the next step.
6. MessageBird will process your request with the regulator and keep you informed on your registration status. This process should take approximately one week. When your request has been approved your use case will be assigned a Campaign ID which is linked to the respective 10DLC. 
7. You can now start sending the registered campaign. Make sure that you are using the right 10DLC as the originator for the right campaign.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the available throughput limits on 10DLC?

Each carrier is evaluating Brands and Campaign Briefs (use cases) independently. The throughput for a particular brand and use case is determined by each carrier after the registration is complete.

AT&T provides throughput based on each use case type and not based on the Brand. AT&T is promoting declared single use cases by offering lower carrier fees and potentially better throughput for Standard Use Cases. That means only using one use case per 10DLC. Therefore, AT&T discourages Mixed use cases on one 10DLC.

T-Mobile provides daily allowance for throughput. It is allocated to the Brand. If the brand has multiple Campaign Briefs, that daily allowance is shared across all Campaigns Briefs. Selecting a Mixed use case does not negatively impact your throughput or carrier fees with T-Mobile.

Other US operators have not communicated any plans to limit throughput for 10DLC use cases so far.

 

Throughput Limits

AT&T Message Class	T-Mobile Message Tier	Brand Risk Level	Use Case per Type	AT&T TPM (Transactions per minute) / T-Mobile Daily Message Cap
A	Top	Low	Standard Use Cases (except Mixed or Marketing)	AT&T: 3,600 TPM T-Mob: 200,000 daily
B	Top	Low	Mixed  Marketing	AT&T: 3,600 TPM T-Mob: 200,000 daily
C	High	Medium	Standard Use Cases (except Mixed or Marketing)	AT&T: 600 TPM T-Mob: 40,000 daily
D	High	Medium	Mixed Marketing	AT&T: 600 TPM T-Mob: 40,000 daily
E	Low	High	Standard Use Cases (except Mixed or Marketing)	AT&T: 60 TPM T-Mob: 10,000 daily
F	Low	High	Mixed Marketing	AT&T: 60 TPM T-Mob: 10,000 daily
T	Low	High	Low Volume Mixed	AT&T: 12 TPM T-Mob: 2,000 daily
Unregistered	Unregistered	High	Default	AT&T: 12 TPM T-Mob: N/A
G		Special	Conversational (Number Masking)	AT&T: 600 TPM T-Mob: N/A
P		Special	Charity	AT&T: 60 TPM T-Mob: N/A
S		Special	Social engagement	AT&T: 60,000 TPM T-Mob: N/A
Q		Special	Political messaging	AT&T: 3,000 TPM T-Mob: N/A
X		Special	Emergency services [Public safety]	AT&T: 3,000 TPM T-Mob: N/A
N		Special	Insurance agents, franchises, local branches	AT&T: 3,600 TPM T-Mob: N/A
W		Special	Sole Proprietor	AT&T: 15 TPM T-Mob: 1,000 daily

 

 

What steps does MessageBird take to register the Brand and Campaign Brief in the Registry?

The Campaign Registry or TCR is the organisation who is responsible for managing all 10DLC registrations. Once we get all the above mentioned details about your 10DLC, your Brand and your Campaign Brief(s) per Use Case, we will perform the following steps in partnership with The Campaign Registry.

A simplified step-by-step is:

1. Identification and Verification of Brands: initial check to confirm it is an actual Brand eligible for A2P 10DLC Messaging. This is the first step of the Brand Registration and will incur the Brand Registration fee of US$4 independent of the outcome. IMPORTANT: if your Brand fails to be Verified, you are not allowed to use 10DLC Messaging. 
2. Further Brand Registration: detailed registration of the Brand (public-facing brand or message content provider) within the TCR ecosystem.
3. Brand Secondary Vetting: applicable to all Brands that are not in the Russell 3000 Index and wish to apply for higher throughput equivalent to the Message Class A, B, C or D for AT&T and Message Tier “Top” or “High” for T-Mobile. The higher throughput is not guaranteed.
4. Campaign Brief / Use Case Registration : detailed registration of the Use Case associated with that Brand. It includes description, messaging attributes, features, sample messages, etc.

 

How do the Identification and Verification of Brands work?

Brand Identification confirms the existence of the Company you submitted by checking against several databases. The Brand Identity Status - Verified or Unverified - is based on the accuracy* of the submitted information. 

The following information must be verified for the brand to obtain a “Verified” status: 

• EIN / Tax ID 
• DUNS number is optional but highly recommended for non-US based companies 
• Legal Company Name 
• Legal Company Address 

MessageBird suggests to pay attention to the items below:

• For US Brands, it is important that their EIN, Legal Name and Address match their registered records at the State and/or Federal level.
• For Non-Profit Brands, 501(c)(x), it is important that the registered EIN is tax-exempt as confirmed by the IRS.
• For Government Brands, it is important that their EIN matches a government entity. 
• For Non-US Brands, a Business Number, VAT Number or DUNS, along with the correct registered address will help with the identification process.

*Typos and outdated information can prevent a Brand from being Verified and consequently block any A2P 10DLC Messaging for that Brand. It will return a Unverified Status for that Brand.

 

My Brand has an Unverified Status. How can I re-submit the correct info?

If your Brand Identification and Verification get Unverified Status, our Messagebird Support Team will contact you for clarification. If you realise that the information needs to be updated please reach out to our Support team here. 

You can require as many Brand Verification or re-Verification as you need. Please note that each of them will cost US$4 as it is the first step in the Brand Registration process.

 

How does my Brand Verification Status affect my throughput and traffic volume?

Carriers broadly categorise Brands in 3 categories:

• Unverified Status: all traffic gets blocked. 10DLC Messaging is not allowed.
• Verified Status, but not part of the Russell 3000 Stock Index: lower tier throughput limited to 1 SMS/s on AT&T and daily cap volume of 10,000 on T-Mobile
• Verified Status and part of the Russell 3000 Stock Index: higher tier throughput limited to 60 SMS/s on AT&T and daily cap volume of 200,000 on T-Mobile 

 

My company is not part of the Russell 3000 Index but we need higher throughput. How can we apply for it?

You can apply for Brand Secondary Vetting at a cost of US$40. Vetted Brands can have access to all standard Use Cases. Carriers allow Brand Secondary Vetting via an authorised 3rd party listed below:

1. WMC Global 
2. Aegis Mobile 
3. Campaign Verify - Applicable for Political use cases only

Vetting will be based on your current Brand information. MessageBird suggests double checking that all details are correct before proceeding. When you have checked your details, you can initiate vetting by contacting Support on this page.

Note: better throughput is not guaranteed. In the rare event of a lower Vetting Score, the Brand Secondary Vetting can also impose a reduction in a Brand & Use Case throughput. Check the table here for reference.

 

What is the cheapest solution to send SMS to the US?

The cheapest solution for 10DLC Messaging is registering your Brand and applying for a Low Volume Mixed use case. Among the standard use cases, this one has the lowest subscription fee. Note that once the AT&T grace period is over (date TBD), the carrier pass-through fees for this network will increase.

This is a good fit solution if you meet the following criteria:

• You don’t send more than 10k SMS/month across all carriers.
• You don’t need high throughput. Low Volume Mixed cases are restricted to 12 messages/minute on the AT&T network and capped volume at 2k messages/day on T-Mobile.
• Your messages are NOT time-sensitive.

If your use case doesn’t meet these criteria, there are other standard types available for you to choose from. Please see here: What use cases are accepted?

Can I use the same number for multiple use cases?

Yes, this is possible and is called a Mixed Use Case. You can combine up to 5 different standard use cases in the same 10DLC. From experience, we urge you to keep the following in mind though:

• AT&T discourages Mixed Use Cases. Once its grace period is over, its carrier pass-through fees will be more expensive. In addition, filtering is increased and throughput is lower when compared to single use cases.

• For medium / high volume traffic, MessageBird recommends to separate the use cases in different 10DLC. It is better to register one Campaign Brief for each use case with a dedicated 10DLC for each.

• If a suspicious SMS is flagged on a Mixed use case campaign, the traffic will be suspended/blocked for the 10DLC as a whole, including all use cases in that number.

 

How many numbers, brands and use cases can I associate with one another?

• You can associate up to 50 numbers to the same Brand + Use Case. Note that it won’t increase deliverability - because the throughput is limited on the Brand or Campaign Brief level. If you have a special request to add more than 50 numbers to the same Brand and Use Case, it will require post-registration approval by the carriers, and T-Mobile charges US$5000/ request for evaluation. E.g. the special use case for Agents & Franchises.
• One 10DLC can only be associated with one Brand + Use Case. This can be a Mixed Use Case, but note this needs to be registered as such. If you register a standard use case, but send mixed traffic, your traffic will be blocked.
• The only option for multiple use cases in the same 10DLC is the Mixed use case or Low Volume Mixed (if you meet the criteria).

 

How can I cancel my 10DLC subscription?

Your 10DLC registration subscription will keep running until this is cancelled. If you are not sending traffic anymore but have not cancelled your subscription with us, you will continue to be billed. To cancel your 10DLC registration subscription, please reach out to our Support Team via this page listing the Numbers that you would like to cancel, at least one month before the end of the subscription date. 

Note that cancelling your Number subscription in our Dashboard directly will only deactivate the Number itself from your account. It will not cancel your 10DLC registration subscription; your subscription costs will keep running until these are cancelled by our support team.