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 TextP2P 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.

What do I need to do?

Register your company as a Primary Business Profile in TextP2P’s Trust Center. Then, register your Brand(s) and Campaigns.

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 per day, you should re-register for Low Volume Standard Brands.
If you have a Tax ID (EIN) and send over 6,000 message per day, you should re-register for appropriate campaign types within Standard Brands.
If you don’t have a Tax ID (EIN), you should register as sole entrepreneur and you will be limited to less than 3,000 messages per day.

Trust Center Video Tutorial:

How does A2P 10DLC work?

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

Businesses must identify who they are to the carrier networks (Brand registration).
Businesses must register what type of messages they are sending, i.e. notifications (Campaign registration).

Registration is done entirely through TextP2P’s Trust Center. We have integrated with The Campaign Registry (TCR) to meet the requirements of carriers, while making it easy for businesses to onboard.

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

AT&T expects businesses to register their Brands and Campaigns for A2P 10DLC messaging in the US starting June 1, and no later than August 1, 2021.

If you are a very small business or a hobby project, you might not need to register. See below for guidelines.

What happens if I don't register?

Registered traffic to AT&T will benefit from lower fees. After August 1, AT&T will increase message filtering on non-registered traffic, to better protect mobile subscribers from unwanted messaging.

T-Mobile (including Sprint) will require registration under this new system as well. Details are still forthcoming and we will update this article when we have more to share. However, you should plan to register to take advantage of better rates and reduced filtering to these networks as well.

We do not expect the increased message filtering to be a problem for small businesses sending small volumes of message traffic. TextP2P and carriers are committed to ensuring this type of traffic remains possible. However, the increased filtering will have a negative impact on delivery of messages for larger business use cases sending higher volumes.

We expect that some of you may wonder whether they would be considered a hobbyist or a small business, based on your current message volume to the US. As of today, we don't have specific thresholds from carriers to determine this. Please stay tuned as we will update this information as soon as more specific guidance is available.

How does Brand registration work?

When you complete your A2P Profile (Brand Registration), The Campaign Registry will give your Brand a Trust Score of either Low, Medium, or High Trust. This rating influences the maximum message throughput that will be allocated to each of your Campaigns (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 TextP2P trust center, that information is sent from TextP2P to The Campaign Registry (TCR), a 3rd party at the center of this new registration system. TCR uses a reputation algorithm to review specific criteria relating to your company, and assign a “Trust Score” that will determine your messaging throughput.

How do Trust Scores influence message throughput?

Trust Scores are grouped into three levels, from lowest to highest. Your Trust Score level, combined with your Campaign Type, will determine the message throughput that is allocated to your Campaign. As of June 1, throughput limits will not be enforced on TextP2P, but we expect to support it in the near future. We will communicate any changes via this FAQ.

What’s a Campaign?

A Campaign represents a use case. Some companies may only need one Campaign, in other cases you may have multiple. For example, if you are a company that sends authentication codes to validate new users, but you also send marketing messages, you should register two Campaigns.

When I register my Campaign, I have to select a Use Case. What do these mean?

Your Campaign Use Case describes the type of messaging you plan to send. This will effect your throughput of messages

Use cases vary from notifications and fraud alerts to customer care to social updates. For 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-TextP2P website to complete registration?

No. Registration can be completed entirely through TextP2P's trust center. TextP2P has integrated with The Campaign Registry through our provider twilio to facilitate registration for our customers.

Do I need to buy new phone numbers to use this A2P 10DLC service?

If you are already using local numbers, there is no need to buy new numbers. You will enable your existing numbers to use the new A2P 10DLC service by following the registration process.

How long does it take to get registered?

After A2P registration opens on April 1, we expect that Brand and Campaign registrations by an approved Business Profile will typically be approved within 1 hour.

Is MMS messaging affected by A2P 10DLC?

Yes, however long code MMS messaging remains subject to throughput limits, due to limited carrier capacity

What message sending throughput (MPS) do I get?

Message throughput will eventually be allocated per Campaign and will differ between SMS and MMS. However, at the initial launch on April 1, MPS for SMS will remain unchanged at 1 MPS (message segment per second) per long code phone number sending to the +1 region. Long code MMS will remain the same, with an account-level limit of 25 MPS for long code MMS.

How do these rule changes affect Toll-Free numbers? Should I switch to 10DLC?

These changes do not directly affect Toll-Free numbers.

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 as well as Canada.

Is Verizon making any changes to their existing A2P 10DLC service?

Verizon launched their 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, TextP2P will notify our customers in advance.

What about other mobile networks in the US?

T-Mobile is using the same registration system as AT&T. We will be sharing finalized details around T-Mobile's transition to A2P 10DLC in the near future, and updating this FAQ with complete details.

US Cellular (the 4th largest mobile carrier in the US) has not announced specific A2P 10DLC plans as of January 2021. Read on for details about other types of mobile networks.

Is messaging to Canada or any other countries also 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.

What fees are associated with the A2P 10DLC service?

There are new fees for campaign registration for the new service.

Brand registration fee: $4 one-time registration fee per Brand.

Campaign registration fees:

Use Case	Campaign Registration Fees*
Agents; franchise; local branches	$30/month*
Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit	$3/month*
K-12 Education	$10/month*
Proxy	$10/month*
Emergency	$5/month*
Political	$10/month*
Social	$10/month*
Sweepstakes	$10/month*

Eligibility and Approval Process

Most special use cases will either require additional vetting of your organization through an external partner, or approval for the use case on a carrier-by-carrier basis. Relatedly, certain special use cases will only be available to certain types of organizations.

The table below summarizes the eligibility and approval process for 10DLC special use cases.

Use Case	Limited to certain entity types?	Minimum Brand Score	Additional Vetting Required?	Carrier Post-Approval Required?
Agents; franchise; local branches	No	25	No	Yes
Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit	501(c)(3) Nonprofits	No Minimum	Yes	No
K-12 Education	No	No Minimum	No	Yes
Proxy	No	25	No	Yes
Emergency	No	25	No	Yes
Political	527, 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), 501(c)(6) Nonprofits	No Minimum	Yes 527: Campaign Verify token required 501(c)(4), (c)(5), (c)(6): No Campaign Verify token required	No
Social	No	No Minimum	Yes	Yes
Sweepstakes	No	50	Yes	Yes

Additional Vetting

Additional vetting is required to gain access to certain 10DLC special use cases as requested by MNOs. For instance, 501(c)(3)s will be vetted by an external partner to gain access to the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit special use case. Vetting will occur automatically at the time of brand registration during 10DLC onboarding, and will not require additional actions from you as a customer to trigger vetting.

Additional Carrier Approvals

Carrier-specific approval is required to register some 10DLC special use case campaigns.

General Special Use Case FAQs

What if I need more than 200,000 messages per day on T-Mobile for my special use case campaign?

All messaging campaigns requiring >200,000 daily messages on the T-Mobile network will need to go through a Special Business Review (SBR) process. For more details on this process see T-Mobile Special Business Review for A2P 10DLC.

Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Use Case FAQs

What kinds of organizations will be eligible for the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit use case?

Only nonprofits with the 501(c)(3) status are eligible for the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit special use case. Nonprofits with other designations (e.g. 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), 527) are not eligible to register messaging campaigns under the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit use case. These organizations should either use the standard 10DLC use cases, or the Political use case (501(c)(4)s and 527s sending political messages).

What are the benefits of registering a messaging campaign as Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit?

The Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit special use case is eligible for reduced/waived carrier fees associated with long code messaging for qualifying organizations. See the pricing table above for details.

How do T-Mobile carrier fee waivers work for Charity / 501(c)(3) use cases?

As of February 1, 2022, all verified 501(c)(3) organizations that register their Brand as a Nonprofit and messaging campaign as a 501(c)(3) / Charity campaign type will receive waivers for messages sent over T-Mobile’s network. In contrast to earlier T-Mobile policies, fee waivers are no longer limited to fundraising use cases, and organizations are no longer required to submit a special business review request in order to receive these benefits.

After registering your Nonprofit brand and 501(c)(3) / Charity campaign, you will automatically receive your applicable fee waiver for outbound messages sent over T-Mobile’s network. For inbound messages sent over T-Mobile, you will continue to see carrier fees reflected in your account when you receive messages, and Twilio will credit these carrier fees back to your account at month end.

For more details on how 501(c)(3) status is verified during brand registration, see the question below.

How will my status as a 501(c)(3) be verified?

At the time of brand registration during 10DLC onboarding, your organization will be automatically vetted in the background to check if the brand info provided matches a registered 501(c)(3) organization in IRS tax exempt records. A successful vetting is dependent on accurate information being provided about your organization during brand creation. If successful, this will expose Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit as an eligible use case when registering your A2P 10DLC messaging campaign, and a tax exempt status attribute will be applied to your brand information.

To check if your brand was successfully verified as a 501(c)(3), you can:

See if your list of available campaigns types for registration includes Charity / 501(c)(3). This campaign type is only exposed for verified 501(c)(3) nonprofit brands.
Check that the tax_exempt_status attribute of your A2P Brand is set to "501c3" using this API endpoint.

Are religious, healthcare, and educational organizations eligible for the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit use case even if they are not traditionally thought of as “charities”?

Any organization registered as 501(c)(3) is eligible for the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit use case. Organizations that are not registered as 501c3 organizations are not eligible for the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit use case.

If I’m a 501(c)(3), can I register using standard use cases?

No, vetted 501(c)(3)s will only qualify for the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit and Emergency special use cases. Unless your use case meets the definition of the Emergency use case, you should register your campaigns using the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit use case. This is meant to be a simplifying assumption so 501(c)(3)s can receive the pricing benefits associated with the Charity / 501(c)(3) Nonprofit special use case.

Political Use Case FAQs

What kinds of organizations are eligible for the Political use case?

527 Political organizations, 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), and 501(c)(6) nonprofits are eligible for the Political special use case. This campaign type is not available to other entity types.

What is Campaign Verify?

Campaign Verify is a non-partisan, non-profit service for 527 organizations such as US political campaigns, parties, and PACs to verify their identity. Campaign Verify has been selected as an approved external vetting partner for the Political special use case. Its purpose is to validate that the sender is verified to be an actual politician or registered political candidate.

Who needs to use Campaign Verify?

All 527 organizations sending long code messages for federal, state, and local political campaigns are required to obtain a Campaign Verify token and provide it during campaign use case registration on Twilio. This will unlock approval for the Political use case with higher messaging capacity (unlimited daily messages to T-Mobile).

501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), 501(c)(6) nonprofits sending political/advocacy messages can register their use case as Political and benefit from higher throughput. 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), 501(c)(6)s do not use Campaign Verify, and will not need to provide a Campaign Verify token during registration.

All registrants of the Political use case, regardless of whether a Campaign Verify token is provided will receive 75 MPS on AT&T.

I'm a 527 organization – how do I register?

527s should register their A2P brand on Twilio with the "Nonprofit" entity type. Campaign Verify (CV) tokens will only be accepted for brands with this entity type.

Unlike 501(c) entities, 527 status will not be automatically detected and applied upon brand registration. Importing your Campaign Verify proves your 527 status and activates the special A2P benefits for your entity type. 527 organizations will not be able to complete Campaign use case registraiton until they import a Campaign Verify token.

A Campaign Verify token can only be imported one time for a single A2P brand, for security purposes. If a 527 is a customer of multiple text messaging providers that will each create an A2P brand on their behalf, a unique CV token will need to be generated and provided to each vendor.

What fees are associated with Campaign Verify?

There is a one-time fee from Campaign Verify per entity verification per two-year election cycle. Verification is $95 for all committee types.

How long does it take to get a token from Campaign Verify?

According to Campaign Verify, their verification process can take anywhere between 1-7 business days. Customers with questions about Campaign Verify registration should check out their FAQ or email support@campaignverify.org.

Do Campaign Verify tokens expire? How can I update my token?

Campaign Verify tokens do expire and will need to be periodically updated. Active Political use case campaigns will be deactivated upon Campaign Verify token expiration. CV verifications submitted in 2021 or 2022 will be valid until January 31, 2023.

Updating a Campaign Verify token after A2P brand registration will initially only be available via Twilio’s A2P APIs. Support for updating Campaign Verify tokens in the Console will be made available in the future.

What does a Campaign Verify token look like?

A full CV token is comprised of 6 pipe (|) delimited fields For example: cv|1.0|tcr|10dlc|9957c339-d46f-49b7-a399-2e6d5ebac66d|GQ3NMEjED8xSlaAgRXAXXBUNBT2AgL-LdQuPveFhEyy

Emergency Use Case FAQs

What kinds of organizations are eligible for the Emergency use case?

All entity types are eligible to register for the Emergency use case. Each messaging campaign will need to match the carriers’ specific definition of Emergency as “Notification services designed to support public safety/health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics, and other national or regional emergencies.” Every attempt to register a campaign with the Emergency special use case will need to go through an additional approval process on a carrier-by-carrier basis.

What is the benefit of registering with the Emergency special use case?

The Emergency special use case includes increased throughput as well as reduced/waived carrier fees. See above tables for pricing and throughput for details.

K-12 Education Special Use Case FAQs

If I serve multiple schools, do I need a separate Campaign for each school? How do I split up my traffic?

ISV customers registering for K-12 Education are not required to create separate secondary brands for each K-12 school. Instead, a single K-12 Education Campaign under the ISV's own Brand can house phone numbers belonging to multiple schools.

However, if you serve some of your messaging traffic at no cost to your client school(s), you should register all your free traffic as a separate K-12 Education Campaign from your paid client traffic, in case of potential fee benefits that are being considered by carriers. Twilio will update our documentation with details about any such fee benefits when information becomes available.

K-12 is listed as requiring carrier post-approval, what does that mean?

Please see the Post-Approval FAQs below for a full explanation of what this entails.

How can I get access to waived T-Mobile carrier fees for K-12 Special Use Cases?

See this support article on Message Fee Relief for Emergency and K-12 Special Use Cases.