What you need to know to help you stay compliant with The Campaign Registry
Recently, more and more businesses have realized the benefits of using messaging as a channel to create a 5-star customer experience (CX). However, with the influx of businesses utilizing text messaging at increasingly higher volumes over the years, the carriers have put more scrutiny on business texting (aka. “A2P texting”).
Why? Two main reasons:
- Messaging is unregulated by the FCC. Therefore, each carrier’s responsibility is to prove they are keeping the ecosystem clean of unwanted messages and bad actors.
- Messaging gets engagement like no other channel (higher open rates and quicker response times than email), and folks want to keep it that way.
To protect consumers, U.S. carriers have implemented 10 digit long code, or 10DLC. This requires businesses that send SMS and MMS over local phone numbers to register their brands and campaigns with The Campaign Registry (more on them later).
Those who don’t register will pay the price (literally!). On March 1st, 2022, carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T began imposing surcharges and message fees for all unregistered traffic. This could mean higher-than-usual deliverability issues, which could cause delays for your business.
With all that’s happening around 10DLC, it can be tricky to navigate alone. Therefore, we want to make this registration process as painless as possible for you and your customers. We’re here to guide you on everything you need to know so you can keep providing 5-star digital engagements while staying compliant on 10DLC.
What is the relationship between The Campaign Registry, Bandwidth, and 10DLC?
Who is The Campaign Registry?
The carriers have designated a third-party company, The Campaign Registry (TCR), to register brands and campaigns via campaign service providers.
The Campaign Registry is the organization that will assess the trust score assigned to each brand and pass along that information to the carriers to assign their message limitations according to each carrier’s system. By complying with TCR, businesses offer complete transparency about their messaging use case and content sent to their consumers.
| TERMS AND DEFINITIONS TO KEEP IN MIND: Brand: The company or entity initiating messages to the consumer. Campaign: A collection of information used to identify use case and CTIA compliance for carrier evaluation. A campaign requires details such as message examples and industry vertical |
What is Bandwidth’s role in 10DLC and The Campaign Registry?
Our goal is to help your business navigate 10DLC compliance effectively! That means avoiding unnecessary surcharge fees and delays in A2P message deliverability. We are already a participating communications service provider (CSP) partner with The Campaign Registry and offer you the ability to register brands and campaigns within our dashboard and via API.
The aim is to provide you with timely info about updates and policies related to 10DLC. In addition, our support team and messaging experts are here to help you with any additional questions you may have about this process.
Curious whether to register your brand(s) and campaigns with Bandwidth or with TCR? Learn more here.
What changed with 10DLC on March 1st, 2022
Unregistered 10DLC traffic and carrier fees
Effective on March 1st, 2022, carriers began implementing surcharge fee increases for all unregistered traffic on their networks. If you are using a local number and its traffic is unregistered with TCR, you will see higher surcharge fees for the business text messages you send.
What does this mean for you?
The March 1st 10DLC deadline means increased fines by carriers for all unregistered traffic coming from your business.
| T-Mobile Update: T-Mobile has announced the increase of per-message fees for unregistered traffic and a $50 Campaign Activation fee for new or migrated campaigns. The fees for unregistered traffic will be increased starting March 1, 2022: • $.004 for Inbound and Outbound SMS |
| AT&T Update: AT&T’s grace period ends on March 1, 2022, and the following per-message fees will apply to registered traffic: • $0.002 for Outbound SMS Also, beginning March 1, 2022, unregistered traffic will incur the following fees for AT&T: • $0.004 for Outbound SMS |
How to navigate these changes
To avoid unnecessary carrier surcharges, you must comply with The Campaign Registry. Being compliant means you have registered your brand(s) and campaigns that utilize local numbers for A2P messaging with TCR.
We offer you the ability to register brands and campaigns within our dashboard and via API. So whether you’re registering through Bandwidth or going directly to The Campaign Registry, we have a few options that you can choose from based on your business and use case. In addition, we’ve created a video tutorial that guides you through the process.
Helpful resources to stay up to date on 10DLC Policies
Bandwidth’s Messaging Support Center
With the consistent change in 10DLC policies and regulations over recent years, it can be challenging to stay up to date with new developments. If you have any outstanding questions about long code messaging, please visit our Knowledge Base to learn about The Campaign Registry, 10DLC, and carrier updates.
The Campaign Registry website
The Campaign Registry is a fantastic resource to learn the ins and outs of the 10DLC, guidelines on how it works, and tutorials on being compliant when doing messaging campaigns.
Check out their FAQ section for any additional information on TCR.
Bandwidth’s 411 Video Series
Our messaging experts are here to help! Consult and learn from our team to stay informed on recent changes and what that means for your specific business.
Our video series gives you all the details around 10DLC in a quick, entertaining, and educational format!
Moving forward with 10DLC
We understand that navigating the registration process can feel overwhelming, but we are here to help you stay compliant without seeing a disruption in your A2P messaging.
We want to help you avoid unnecessary fees with carriers after the March 1st, 2022 changes are implemented. Register with Bandwidth or The Campaign Registry to help make your 10DLC messages more effective and less costly!
Have additional questions? Let us know!
