What is A2P 10DLC?

A2P 10DLC is a messaging compliance system that enables businesses to send Application-to-Person (A2P) messages via 10-digit long code phone numbers in the United States. This comprehensive guide provides a detailed overview of A2P 10DLC, registration requirements, campaign use cases, compliance guidelines, and the impact on message delivery and pricing. Whether you're a small business or an ISV, understanding messaging compliance is crucial for maintaining reliable and effective communication with your audience.

Important Notices

Unregistered 10DLC Message Fee Increases

• AT&T and T-Mobile are increasing the per-message rate on unregistered traffic. If these numbers remain unregistered, they may be subject to additional filtering or blocking. Some carrier fees will be increased on June 1, 2023, and others will be increased on August 1, 2023.
• For more information on the specific fees and timing, please see What Pricing and Fees are Associated with A2P 10DLC.
• If you have unregistered traffic, register for A2P 10DLC via LC Phone Console or API before June 1, 2023, to avoid the higher fees and service disruptions.

Please Note: 

Sole Proprietor A2P 10DLC Registration Now Available 

LC Phone has re-launched the Sole Proprietor Brand registration offering (formerly known as “Starter Brand”) in accordance with the new industry guidelines for sending low-volume messaging.
• If you’re an individual or small business without a Tax ID (EIN), please see New Changes to Sole Proprietor Brands FAQ for more details on how to register.
• If you have a Tax ID (EIN) and low traffic requirement (less than 6,000 messages per day), Low Volume Standard Brands can be used for mixed messaging campaigns with multiple use cases, multiple numbers per campaign, and higher throughput than Sole Prop. 
• If you have a Tax ID (EIN) and higher traffic requirement (more than 6,000 messages per day), Standard Brands can be used for multiple use cases, multiple numbers per campaign, and higher throughput.
• For a full overview of the different Brand registration offerings, see our Comparison between Sole Prop, Low Volume Standard, and Standard registration for A2P 10DLC.

New Requirements for A2P 10DLC Registrations 

Effective January 26, 2023, new A2P Campaign registrations are subject to a new vetting process, which includes a one-time $15 campaign vetting fee. For more information, visit our FAQ on A2P 10DLC Campaign Vetting Changes - January 2023.

What is A2P 10DLC?

A2P 10DLC refers to a system in the United States that allows businesses to send Application-to-Person (A2P) type messaging via standard 10-digit long code (10DLC) phone numbers. Carriers in the US consider all LC Phone traffic to be A2P. Carriers’ A2P 10DLC offerings provide better delivery quality and lower filtering risk than long code SMS of the past, using the same phone numbers.
Special Use Cases are now supported; however, if you are a customer registering a special use case requiring additional carrier approval or a 527 Political Organization, please  see our guidance on Special Use Cases before proceeding with registration.

Register now to benefit from improved deliverability and increased throughput in the new verified A2P 10DLC ecosystem. A2P 10DLC has new registration requirements for businesses that intend to send long-code messages to AT&T in the US.

What do I need to do?

If you do not send any messages to users in the United States using long code numbers, you do not need to do anything. If you send messages to the United States using long code numbers, you have the following registration options based on your Tax ID status, volume, and use case:

• If you have a Tax ID (EIN) and send under 6,000 message segments per day, you should re-register for Low Volume Standard Brands

• If you have a Tax ID (EIN) and send over 6,000 message segments daily, you should re-register for appropriate campaign types within Standard Brands.

• If you don’t have a Tax ID (EIN), you should register a Sole Proprietor Brand (available April 17th).

A2P 10DLC registration can be done in the  Trust Center under Settings > Phone Numbers

For a more detailed overview of what information you will need and how to begin, see. How do I register to use A2P 10DLC messaging?

Read on for details of the rules and requirements under the new A2P 10DLC registration system and answers to many common questions.

How does A2P 10DLC work?

There are two important requirements under the new A2P 10DLC system:

1. Businesses must identify who they are to the carrier networks (Brand registration).

2. Businesses must register what type of messages they send, i.e., notifications (Campaign registration). 

Registration is done entirely through LC Phone System Trust Center. We have integrated with The Campaign Registry (TCR) to meet carriers' requirements while making it easy for businesses to onboard. 

Please see how I register to use A2P 10DLC messaging for additional guidance.

Do I need to register? If so, what’s the deadline?

We strongly recommend customers complete registration as soon as possible. Your traffic will be subject to higher unregistered fees and possible filtering until your phone number(s) are associated with a registered campaign. You must re-register in a timely manner to minimize the impact of these fees.

What if I am testing or sending a low volume of messages to the US?

If you do not have a tax ID, you should register a Sole Proprietor Brand designed for individuals and small businesses. This offering will be available on April 17th. See New Changes to A2P 10DLC Sole Proprietor Brands FAQ for more information. 

If you have a tax ID, you must register even if you send low volumes of messages. You should register for Low Volume Standard Brands if you send under 6,000 message segments daily.

What happens if I don't register?

Increased message filtering and fees will apply to messages that are sent without registration. We also expect that at a future date, unregistered messaging to the US via long code numbers will cease to be supported altogether.

For details on unregistered message traffic fees, see the pricing and fees associated with the A2P 10DLC service.

How does US A2P Brand registration work? 

When you complete your US A2P Brand registration, your Brand will receive a Trust Score from 0 to 100. This rating influences the maximum message throughput that will be allocated to each of your Campaign use cases (see below).

What is a Trust Score, and how does it affect me?

When you complete the registration of your Brand and Campaign(s) for A2P Messaging through the LC Phone Console, that information is sent from LC Phone to The Campaign Registry (TCR), a 3rd party at the center of this new registration system. LC Phone automatically submits your Brand for secondary vetting, which uses a reputation algorithm to review specific criteria relating to your company and assign a Trust Score to determine your messaging throughput and T-Mobile daily message limits.

How do Trust Scores influence message throughput?

Trust Scores are grouped into three levels, from lowest to highest. Your Trust Score level and Campaign Type will determine the message throughput allocated to your campaign use case.

For details, see Message throughput (MPS) and Trust Scores for A2P 10DLC in the US.

Required information for United States A2P 10DLC registration

Low-Volume Standard Brands

Each business will need the following information to register for A2P 10DLC. This means you must collect this info for your customers if you are a direct brand.

Business Information

• Business Name

• Physical Address (Street, City, State/Province/Region, Postal Code, Country)

• Business Identity (Direct Customer or ISV/Reseller/Partner)

• Business Type (Sole Proprietorship/Partnership/Corporation /Co-Operative/LLC/Non-Profit)

• Company Status (Private/Public)

• Stock Ticker & Exchange (if Public)

• Business Registration Number & Type (EIN for US-based companies, other business identifiers for non-US companies)

• Industry

• Website

• Regions of Operations

• Points of Contact

An authorized representative with the following info:

• Name

• Email

• Title

• Phone Number

• Job Position (Director/VP/GM/General Counsel/CEO/CFO)

• A second point of contact may also be provided but is optional.

Sole Proprietor Brands

Sole Proprietor registration is available now. The following requirements will apply.

No Tax ID (EIN): To qualify for Sole Proprietor registration, you must not have an EIN (Employer Identification Number). Any business with a Tax ID (EIN) is not eligible and should instead register for a Low Volume Standard Brand.

US or Canada only: Sole Proprietor Brands are limited to individuals in the US and Canada.

Information required for registration:

• Brand or business name

• First name

• Last name

• Email address

• Mobile phone number (in US or Canada)

• Physical address (in US or Canada)
  
  
  

  What’s a campaign use case?

  This represents a messaging use case, for example, sending account notifications or conducting marketing. In carrier terminology, these are called "Campaigns." For more specificity, LC Phone is calling them campaign use cases.
  Some companies may only need to register one campaign use case; in other scenarios, you may have multiple. For example, if you are a company that sends authentication codes to validate new users but also sends marketing messages, you should register two campaign use cases.
  
  

  What does the campaign use case options mean?

  Your campaign use case describes the type of messaging you plan to send. This will influence the price you pay per message on AT&T.
  Use cases vary from notifications and fraud alerts to customer care to social updates. For more information on Campaigns and a full list of campaign use cases, please see: List of Campaign Types and Use Case Types for A2P 10DLC registration.
  
  

  Do I need to go directly to The Campaign Registry or any other non-LC Phone website to complete registration?

  No. Registration can be completed entirely through LC Phone. LC Phone has integrated directly with The Campaign Registry (TCR) to facilitate registration for our customers. This offers you other benefits of LC Phone’s Trust Hub.
  
  

  However, before considering this option, we strongly recommend you review this crucial information about requirements and limitations when registering directly with TCR.
  
  Can I buy new phone numbers to use this A2P 10DLC service?
  Buying new numbers is unnecessary if you already use long code numbers. Following the registration process will enable your existing numbers to use the new A2P 10DLC service.
  
  See also: How do these rule changes affect short codes and Toll-Free numbers? Should I switch to 10DLC?
  
  FAQs
  What information is required for registration?
  You will need information about each business and brand to register businesses, brands, and use cases. The required info includes the business name, physical address, and business type (LLC, partnership, etc.).
  
  Once I complete registration, how do I ensure my phone numbers use 10DLC?
  Once your Brand(s) and Campaign(s) are approved, you must link each of your A2P Campaign Use Cases to a Messaging Service and add phone numbers to that Messaging Service. Any numbers that you add to that Messaging Service will be automatically associated with the Campaign that you linked to that Messaging Service.
  
  This article contains steps to follow in the LC Phone Console or using our APIs to ensure your numbers are configured correctly: How do I check that I have completed US A2P 10DLC registration?
  
  By default, newly-created Messaging Services are set to "Defer to sender webhooks," meaning the Messaging Service will not override any existing inbound message handling you have configured on your LC Phone numbers. If you are using an existing Messaging Service, you created weeks or months ago, ensure its inbound message handling settings are configured the way you want before adding any numbers. You can browse that Service in the LC Phone Console or use the Messaging Services API.
  
  
  Do I need to change the way I send outbound messages?
  If you don’t currently use Messaging Services in your application to send outbound messages, that’s OK – you won’t need to make changes within your application. Modifying your application to include the Messaging Service SID in your API requests is unnecessary. Adding the phone numbers to a Messaging Service is only necessary to associate them with a Campaign.
  
  What pricing and fees are associated with the A2P 10DLC service?
  For an overview of registration costs and per-message carrier fees associated with A2P 10DLC, please see the pricing and fees associated with the A2P 10DLC service.
  
  How long does it take to get registered?
  A2P 10DLC registration is a multiple-step process that includes registering a Business Profile, a US A2P Brand, and a Campaign use case.
  Brand registration can typically be completed in a few minutes if you've collected all the required information. For example, when registering a US-based business, you should ensure your Employer Identification Number (EIN) is ready when you begin registration. However, in the event that there is a discrepancy with the information you provide, a manual review may be required for Secondary Vetting, which can take up to 7 days. To avoid this, please see  A2P 10 DLC Brand Approval Best Practices
  Effective January 26, 2023, all new A2P Campaign registrations are subject to a manual vetting process. We are currently experiencing several weeks of delays in vetting A2P 10DLC Campaigns. We are working with our 3rd Party provider to improve the vetting times. In the meantime, please account for these delays when registering, and for more information, visit our FAQ on  A2P 10DLC Campaign Vetting Changes - January 2023.
  
  Is MMS messaging affected by A2P 10DLC?
  Yes, MMS messaging via long code is subject to carrier fees as part of A2P 10DLC. We also expect registered MMS traffic to ultimately benefit from reduced carrier filtering. However, long code MMS messaging remains subject to throughput limits due to limited carrier capacity. A shortcode is still the best option for high-volume MMS use cases in the United States.
  
  What message-sending throughput (MPS) do I get?
  Message throughput (MPS) will be allocated per registered Campaign Use Case. For many customers, A2P 10DLC will offer much higher throughput than the traditional 1 MPS for long code messaging without requiring additional numbers to get higher throughput.
  For details, see Message throughput (MPS) and Trust Scores for A2P 10DLC in the US.
  
  How do these rule changes affect shortcodes and Toll-Free numbers? Should I switch to 10DLC?
  These changes do not directly affect shortcodes and Toll-Free numbers, except for officially prohibiting shared short codes for all use cases except authentication codes. Details below.
  
  Shared short codes will be banned, date TBD
  Dedicated short codes are still a great way to send high-volume A2P messaging in the United States. However, the transition to A2P 10DLC will ban sharing short code numbers. The only exception to this policy is shared short codes used to send 2-factor to auth (2FA) or OTP codes only.
  
  “Shared short codes” refers to short code numbers that are shared among multiple brands; for example, Shoe Company A and Beverage Company B send messages via the same short code number. If you have purchased a short code number from LC Phone and are using it only for your business and brand, this change will not affect you.
  
  Under the new policy, a short code may be shared across multiple companies only for the purposes of sending authentication code messages, for example, "Your login code is 12345." Any other category of messaging is not allowed on a shared shortcode.
  
  Customers sharing a short code among multiple clients or brands for purposes other than sending 2-factor codes (OTPs) should completely migrate away from shared short codes.
  Previously, the end date for shared short codes was identified as June 1, 2021. As of early 2022, the end date for shared short codes is on hold until the successful implementation of A2P 10DLC. A specific date will be shared here when we have information to share.
  
  Toll-Free SMS – no changes
  US Toll-Free phone numbers are not affected by these changes. Toll-Free SMS is still a great way to send A2P SMS in the United States and Canada. See Information and best practices for using Toll-Free SMS in the US and Canada for more information.
  
  Is there an API for registering Business Profiles, US A2P Brands, and Campaign Use Cases?
  Yes, for ISV-type customers invited to onboard their clients, LC Phone provides APIs for registering yourselves and your clients. You can view the documentation here: ISV A2P 10DLC Registration: API Step-by-Step walkthrough.
  Regardless of how you plan to register, we encourage you to go ahead and collect all the required information. See How do I register to use A2P 10DLC messaging? for a list.
  
  Is Verizon making any changes to its existing A2P 10DLC service?
  Verizon launched its A2P 10DLC service in January 2019. At this time, Verizon has not announced any plans to adopt these new Brand and Campaign registration requirements. If this ever occurs, LC Phone will notify our customers in advance.
  For now, Verizon’s A2P 10DLC service continues operating without changes. See the Verizon A2P 10DLC FAQ for details.
  
  What about other mobile networks in the US?
  Please note that the T-Mobile network includes Sprint and MetroPCS, as those networks were acquired by T-Mobile previously. All information related to T-Mobile also applies to these networks.
  US Cellular (the 4th largest mobile carrier in the US) has not announced specific A2P 10DLC plans as of January 2022.
  Read on for details about other types of mobile networks.
  Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)
  Many smaller branded mobile providers in the US are actually Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), who utilize one or more of the major mobile networks for their service. A list of US MVNOs is available on Wikipedia. These changes will also affect MVNO numbers primarily utilizing AT&T's network.
  If you perform an  LC Phone Lookup on a mobile number operated by an MVNO, it will display the name of the primary host network (for example, AT&T or Verizon).
  Other independent mobile networks
  Small independent mobile networks in the US are a small percentage of the mobile market and are unaffected by upcoming A2P 10DLC changes. A  list of mobile networks in the US that own and operate their network infrastructure is available on Wikipedia for reference.
  
  Are these changes also affecting messaging to Canada, Puerto Rico, or other countries?
  No, Canada mobile carriers are not impacted at this time. Canadian mobile carriers may introduce registered A2P 10DLC solutions in the future, but at this time, carriers have not announced any plans to do so.
  Yes, Puerto Rico carriers are impacted as well. Many recipients in Puerto Rico have telephone services from US-based carriers. Messages to those recipients are treated the same as messages to US-based recipients of those networks.
  For information about message sending in countries other than the US, we recommend checking out our country-specific SMS Guidelines pages to learn about any unique rules or restrictions in that country.
  
  Is WhatsApp messaging affected by A2P 10DLC?
  No. WhatsApp messaging is unaffected by any of these changes. WhatsApp messages are transmitted over the Internet rather than through carrier networks like SMS and MMS.