A2P 10DLC refers to a system that allows businesses to send Application-to-Person (A2P) type messaging via standard 10-digit long code (10DLC) phone numbers.
How does this affect me?
If you don’t need to send messages to users in the United States, the new A2P 10DLC registration system does not affect you, and you don’t need to do anything.
If your business is sending messages in the US, continue reading.
How do the new A2P 10DLC regulation affect my business?
Under the new A2P 10DLC system, businesses are required to provide the following information to The Campaign Registry (TCR), the central hub for registering A2P 10DLC messaging campaigns.
- Brand Registration: Businesses must identify who they are to the carrier networks.
- Campaign Registration: Businesses must identify what type of messages, i.e. notifications they are sending.
What happens after I register my brand?
Once you complete your A2P profile, TCR will give your brand a Trust Score of Low, Medium or High.
What is a Trust Score, and how is it determined?
TCR uses a reputation algorithm to assign your business a Trust Score. Your Trust Score level, (Low, Medium or High), combined with your Campaign Type will determine the message throughput allotted to your Campaign.
What is a Campaign?
A Campaign represents a use case. In other words, a Campaign is a description of the type of message you plan to send. Each type of message your business sends will fall into a different campaign. For example, if you plan to send authentication codes and marketing messages, you should register two Campaigns.
Do I need to buy new phone numbers to use the new A2P 10DLC services?
You don’t have to buy new numbers if you’re already using long code phone numbers. You can enable existing phone numbers to use the new A2P 10DLC service by following the registration process.
Once my Brand and Campaign have been registered with the TRC, how can I make sure my phone numbers use 10DLC?
After your Brand(s) and Campaign(s) are approved, please ensure that your inbound message configuration (e.g. the webhook for your application) is applied on your Messaging Service. Currently, the inbound configuration settings of a Messaging Service takes precedence over the existing inbound settings on those numbers.
Do I need to use a different method to send outbound messages?
If you don’t use Messaging Services in your application to send outbound messages, you don’t need to make any changes within your application. Modifying your application to include the Messaging Service SID in your API requests is not necessary. To associate phone numbers to a Campaign, you only need to add phone numbers to a Messaging Service.
How does the A2P 10DLC regulation affect MMS messaging?
While long code MMS messaging remains subject to throughput limits, short code is still the best option for high-volume MMS use cases in the United States.
Does the regulation affect Toll-Free phone numbers in Canada and the US?
No, US Toll-Free phone numbers are not affected by these changes. Toll-Free SMS is still a great way to send A2P SMS in Canada as well as the United States.
Is messaging to Canada affected by these changes?
No, 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.
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.