In order to send SMS to the United States customers are required to set up a local number which they can use as their originator. MessageBird offers 3 types of numbers for sending to the US. Below you can see the various features for each type of number to determine which number is best used for your use case.
| Short Code | Toll Free Number | 10DLC | |
| Type of Number | Five/Six digit Short Code | Toll Free Number | Geographical Number |
| Example | 12345 | 18885555555 | 13458674329 |
| SMS enabled | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Voice enabled | No | Yes | Yes |
| MMS enabled | No | Yes | Yes |
| 2-Way Possible | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Suggested Use Cases | High volumes, Marketing, 2FA, Alerts, Notification & content compliant to CTIA Guidelines | Low - Medium volumes, Non-Marketing & Marketing, Customer Service, Alert Notifications |
Low - Medium volumes, All use cases & content compliant to CTIA Guidelines
|
| Mixed Use Cases | Yes | Yes |
Not advised
|
| Unicode | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Concatenated | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Carrier DLR's | Yes | Yes | No |
| Service Restrictions | Content pre-approved by CTIA | Content must follow CTIA Guidelines | Content must follow CTIA Guidelines |
| Daily Send Limit | N/A | N/A | 200,000 |
| Throughput Limit | TBC by operators on case by case basis | Medium/High (increase after case registration) | TBC by operators on case by case basis |
| Passthrough fee* | N/A | Yes | Yes, depending on type of use case |
| Inbound Charge | Yes | Yes | Yes, T-Mobile only |
| Setup Time | 8-12 weeks | 1 business day Use case verification can take up to 1 week |
1 week |
| Minimum Subscription Period | 3 months | N/A | 12 months |
* Passthrough fees are determined by the operators and are subject to change. This is out of MessageBird's control.
Additional Carrier Pass-through Fees
There are additional Carrier Pass-through fees per message on top of MessageBird message rates. These are determined by the operators and are subject to change.
*Note: These additional costs will be added to current MessageBird message rates. Message charges will continue to be: Base MessageBird message rate + Surcharge to destination carrier = Total message cost.
|
AT&T |
T-Mobile (inc Sprint) |
Verizon |
US Cellular |
TextNow |
Message Direction |
|
|
SMS Short Code / Carrier Fee in USD |
$.0025 |
$.0025 |
$.0025 |
$.0035 |
free |
Outbound only for most. Outbound & Inbound for T-Mob |
|
SMS Toll-free Number / Carrier Fee in USD |
$.0025 |
$.0025 |
$.0025 |
$.0025 |
$.0015 |
Outbound only for most. Outbound & Inbound for T-Mob and US Cellular |
|
MMS Toll-free Number / Carrier Fee in USD |
$.0030 |
$.0100 |
$.0050 |
$.0050 |
$.0020 |
Outbound only for most. Outbound & Inbound for T-Mob and US Cellular |
|
SMS 10DLC / Carrier Fee in USD |
$.0020 |
$.0030 |
$.0025 |
$.0050 |
$.0020 |
Outbound only for most. Outbound & Inbound for T-Mobile |
|
MMS 10DLC / Carrier Fee in USD |
$.0035 |
$.0100 |
$.0050 |
$.0100 |
$.0020 |
Outbound only for most. Outbound & Inbound for T-Mobile |
OPT-IN and OPT-OUT Compliance
MessageBird will monitor standard OPT IN and OPT OUT keywords (see list below) to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations. If an opt-out request is received, MessageBird will process it and block future communications between the Sender and the Receiver (opt-out number) until this same Receiver (the end user) OPT IN again by sending the appropriate keyword. Personalized opt-out acknowledgment, non-standard opt-out words - for example, in different languages - as well opted-out number tracking can be set up by customer using Flow Builder or, if you use Contacts, activating the Automatic SMS Subscriptions (Opt-in/Opt-out).
Standard keywords used by MessageBird are (all case insensitive):
‘stop’ * => ACTION_OPTOUT,
* No personalized opt-out confirmation is allowed for Toll-Free Numbers. For those, the carriers will send a standard one and block traffic immediately. This restriction does not apply to Long codes and Short codes.
‘stopall’ => ACTION_OPTOUT,
‘unsubscribe’ => ACTION_OPTOUT,
‘quit’ => ACTION_OPTOUT,
‘cancel’ => ACTION_OPTOUT,
‘end’ => ACTION_OPTOUT,
‘unstop’ => ACTION_OPTIN,
‘start’ => ACTION_OPTIN,
‘yes’ => ACTION_OPTIN,