Intro to 10DLC

Introduction

Learn all about SMS and MMS on local phone numbers using A2P 10DLC.

What is 10DLC?

Short for Ten Digit Long Code, 10DLC is an industry-led standard for sending sanctioned Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS traffic over traditional local numbers, or “long codes”. Established as part of the broader effort by telecom providers to Know Your Customer and move away from unsanctioned messages on long code, 10DLC provides a trusted and effective messaging channel while maintaining a more local connection with your customers.

At the moment, 10DLC is only applicable on messaging campaigns within the United States.

Why should I use it?

10DLC delivers a higher percentage of messages at a faster rate than traditional long code SMS. Prior to 10DLC, A2P messaging over long codes experienced slow delivery speeds and heavy filtering due to the high volume of unsanctioned messages. This left senders with only Short Codes, and more recently Toll-Free SMS, as reliable options for A2P messaging. With the new 10DLC standard in place, trusted senders on long codes now experience drastically higher messaging throughput and reduced carrier filtering.

Unlike Short Codes, which are 5-6 digit numbers issued by the Common Short Code Administration for A2P messaging, 10DLC numbers can also support voice calls in addition to messaging.

10DLC Compliance

The industry standards for 10DLC compliance are governed by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) as well as the industry-led CTIA. Be sure to review the regulations outlined in the TCPA with your own legal counsel. You should also familiarize yourself with CTIA’s Messaging Principles and Best Practices as the carriers will look to see if they are being followed if your messages are flagged for any reason.

How It Works

Getting Registered

Any company wanting to use 10DLC must register as a trusted sender through The Campaign Registry (TCR), the third party authority on 10DLC registration. Each sender on 10DLC must have both a Brand and Campaign registered. Companies register with TCR through a Campaign Service Provider (CSP) such as Voxology. The Getting Started section below walks through the required steps to register for 10DLC through Voxology.

Selecting a CSP

The simplest path to 10DLC registration is to register through an established CSP such as Voxology. For more complex use cases, where companies plan to register many Brands and Campaigns or work with multiple messaging providers, it may make sense to work directly with TCR by registering your company as a CSP. This allows you to register and manage Brands and Campaigns through TCR’s dashboard or by integrating with their API.

Once your Brands and Campaigns are set up in TCR, you’ll need to share the Brand and Campaign details with Voxology along with the phone numbers you want to be used for each campaign. Phone numbers can be added to Campaigns through the Voxology API or by emailing our CX team.

Brand Registration

The first step in registering your company, or your customer’s company, for 10DLC is creating a verified Brand. This registration will go through third-party vetting and establishes your company as a trusted sender over 10DLC routes.

Upon registration, each 10DLC Brand receives a Trust Score; a rating from 0-100 determined by a reputation algorithm defined by TCR’s vetting partners.

If you’re unsure whether to register your company or your customer’s, it’s best to think about who the recipient of each message believes the sender is. If they believe a message was sent from your customer, then you’ll need to register your customer’s company and not your own. Likewise, if the recipient believes your company sent the message, then you need to register your own company as the Brand.

Entity Types

The type of organizations being registered for 10DLC.

Brand Relationship Types

All CSP’s must declare the type of relationship they have with the Brand being registered for 10DLC. The options are listed below. Please note that if you are a reseller of SMS services and you are not registered as your own CSP, Voxology will use Basic Account as the relationship type by default.

External Brand Vetting

After registration, you can request external vetting for a 10DLC Brand to receive a Trust Score; a rating from 0-100 determined by a reputation algorithm defined by TCR’s vetting partners. This will determine the volume and throughput available to your Brand. An unvetted Brand is given the lowest throughput and volume configuration. Please read our 10DLC Messaging Throughput section below for more detail.

There are different types of vetting and vetting providers available to 10DLC Brands. Currently only standard vetting is offered through Voxology’s API.

Campaign Registration

After creating a 10DLC Brand, each sender must define their messaging use case(s) through Campaign Registration. A Brand with multiple messaging use cases may need more than one registered 10DLC campaign. There are two buckets of 10DLC campaign “types” - Standard Campaigns and Special Campaigns.

Standard Campaign Types

The Standard Campaign types listed below are messaging use cases available to all registered Brands. Further vetting or approval is not necessary in most cases.

Special Campaign Types

In addition to the standard campaign types, there are some use cases that receive special consideration under 10DLC. These special campaign types are sensitive or critical in nature and often require additional vetting and approval from Mobile Network Operators.

Low Volume Mixed Campaigns

For 10DLC Brands sending less than 6,000 total SMS segments or MMS messages per day, there is a Low Volume Mixed use case available for a lower monthly fee. This campaign type supports multiple use cases, but is capped at the lowest message throughput available through 10DLC regardless of Trust Score.

10DLC Messaging Throughput

As mentioned above, each vetted 10DLC Brand receives a Trust Score from 0-100, a numerical representation of your brand’s reputation. The Trust Score determines each Brand’s peak message delivery speed as well as the max daily message volume they can send over certain mobile carriers.

Please note that calculating throughput is different for SMS and MMS for both Delivery Speed and Daily Message Volume. With SMS, messages are counted by segment, meaning longer messages impact your delivery speed and max volume. Since message segments do not apply to MMS, only each unique MMS message is counted.

Delivery Speed

The three major mobile carriers in the U.S. each cap the Message per Second (MPS) throughput for 10DLC brands according to their Trust Score. The table below shows the available MPS by Trust Score.

Daily Message Volume

T-Mobile enforces a daily cap on message volume over 10DLC routes according to each Brand’s Trust Score. This limit applies to all messages sent by a Brand regardless of the campaign use case. For example, consider a brand with three separate campaign use cases. Messages sent on all three campaigns will count toward the daily maximum on T-Mobile.

10DLC Fee Structure

There are various one time, recurring, and usage-based fees associated with registering and using 10DLC for A2P messaging. The fees outlined below are set by TCR, the mobile carriers and your messaging provider. Prices were last updated on April 10, 2023 and are subject to change at any time.

One Time Fees

TCR Registration Fees

TCR Vetting Fees

Recurring Fees

TCR Campaign Fees

Phone Number Fees

Fees charged by the messaging provider for a messaging-enabled phone number, which are typically charged per phone number per month/day.

See Voxology’s phone number rates on our pricing page.

Usage Fees

Carrier Fees

Messaging Fees

Fees charged by the messaging provider for each SMS or MMS message part sent and received.

See Voxology’s SMS and MMS rates on our pricing page.

Getting Started

To get started, Speak with a Voxologist or register now in the Voxology Portal.