What is A2P 10DLC and Why is it Critical for US Businesses?
What is A2P 10DLC?
First, A2P 10DLC compliance refers ONLY to businesses texting customers in the United States.
A2P 10DLC refers to a compliance protocol in the United States for businesses sending Application-to-Person (A2P) text messages via standard 10-digit long codes (10DLC), aka phone numbers. This is an initiative by The Campaign Registry (TCR) and US Telco providers to combat spam and reward compliant US businesses with higher message volumes and improved deliverability using traditional phone numbers.
And it is now mandatory. As of August 31st, 2023, businesses texting without approved A2P Campaigns, will see ALL their B2C messages blocked and will be subject to carrier fines.
How Do We Get Compliant?
Text Anything built compliance into our Salesforce application so everything you need to do is in one package that is quick to install, quick to configure, scaleable and makes compliance easy.
A2P 10DLC compliance consists of:
Carrier Registration - Register your company with a valid proof of entity, i.e., Federal Employment Identification Number (FEIN). Text Anything does this via a wizard-driven process and submits registration information to carriers on your behalf; this process takes less than five minutes.
A2P Messaging Campaigns - Each phone number your business texts from must be associated with an approved A2P Campaign. You can create campaigns and submit them directly from the Text Anything app in two minutes. Note, campaigns are manually approved by a 3rd party (not Text Anything). You will see a campaign’s status in the Text Anything “Messaging Campaigns” tab after you submit it. Approval time should take 24 hours but it can vary depending on the backlog of the 3rd party; sometimes it can be the long pole in the tent.
Campaign Mapping - When your first campaign is approved, you simply map it to one of your purchased numbers and that’s it. Now when you send text messages from a mapped number, carriers will see the associated approved campaign and you are fully compliant so long as you message within the bounds you defined in your campaign submission.
How Much Does it Cost?
First, Text Anything passes ALL compliance fees on at cost; we do not mark them up. While they are now a requirement for all US businesses texting customers in the US, compliance fees are not expensive.
Compliance fees are as follows:
Small Business Carrier Registration - $4 (one time)
Enterprise Business Carrier Registration - $44 (one time)
Campaign Manual Review - $15 (each campaign, one time)
Campaign Monthly Fee - $2-15 (monthly depending on the type of campaign)
In summary, compliance is not an expensive proposition and the benefits are much faster texting rates, much higher message deliverability and a significant reduction in spam messages.