Major US carriers have announced their requirements for SMS A2P (application to person) messaging using 10 digit geographic numbers, also known as 10 DLC. This new standard provides many benefits to our customers including supporting higher messaging speeds and better deliverability.

Customers using the Vonage SMS API to send traffic from a +1 Country Code 10-Digit Long Code into US networks will need to register a brand and campaign in order to get approval for sending 10 DLC messages.

The guide below outlines what you need to know about campaign registration for 10DLC messages. For help on registering your brand(s), you can view this brand registration guide.
Customers can only send messages with the same use case that have been registered with their campaign
Resellers of Vonage SMS services will, in most cases, need to register their customers' brands and campaigns for them.
US numbers can no longer be shared across brands which includes both geographic numbers and US Shared Short Codes

10DLC Campaign Registration Guide

Campaigns are a container for the details of the messages sent and will contain information such as use case, subscriber opt-in/out, and associated numbers with the campaign. It is important to understand which use case and numbers are required for a campaign before they are registered for 10DLC messaging.

Campaign Types

Standard Campaigns: Basic use cases that usually do not require additional review.
Special Campaigns: Use cases that will require additional Brand vetting. These are more complex or unusual use cases and requirements such as political, emergency traffic and trials accounts. Don’t worry, our Vonage 10DLC specialists will help guide you through.

Name	Category	Description
2FA	Standard	Any authentication, verification or one-time passcode (OTP)
Account Notification	Standard	Standard notification for account holders, relating to and being about an account
Customer Care	Standard	All customer interaction, including account management and customer support
Delivery Notifications	Standard	Information about the status of the delivery of a product or service
Fraud Alert Messaging	Standard	Messaging regarding potential fraudulent activity on an account
Higher Education	Standard	Campaigns created on behalf of Colleges or Universities. It also includes School Districts and education institutions that fall outside of any "free to the consumer" messaging model
Low Volume Mixed	Standard	Small throughput, any combination of use-cases. Examples include: test, demo accounts
Marketing	Standard	Any communication with marketing and/or promotional content
Mixed	Standard	Any undeclared combination of use-cases
Polling and voting	Special	Requests for surveys and voting for non political arenas
Public Service Announcement	Special	An informational message that is meant to raise the audience's awareness about an important issue
Security Alert	Special	A notification that the security of a system, either software or hardware, has been compromised in some way and there is an action you need to take
Carrier Exemptions	Special	Exemption by Carrier, can only be approved through manual review and or vetting process
Charity	Special	Communications from a registered charity aimed at providing help and raising money for those in need. Includes: 5013C Charity. Does not include: Religious organisations
Conversational Messaging	Special	Peer-to-peer app-based group messaging with proxy/pooled numbers. Supporting personalized services and non-exposure of personal numbers for enterprise or A2P communications
Emergency	Special	Notification services designed to support public safety / health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics and other national or regional emergencies
Sweepstakes	Special	All sweepstakes messaging
Political	Special	Part of organised effort to influence decision making of specific groups. All campaigns to be verified. Only federal campaigns
Social	Special	Communication within or between closed communities. For example: influencers' alerts
Large CSP Trial	Special	Large CSP Trial Offers with strict controls and MNO audit rights - MO opt in

AT&T Campaign Categorization & Throughput

AT&T categorizes campaigns in order to manage throughput and cost per campaign registration.

TPM - Throughput per minute
TPS - Throughput per second
Risk Level - Is defined by the scoring of the Brand during registration

Class	Risk Level	Use Case	Type	TPM	TPS
A	Standard (low risk)	2FA/ Authentication Customer Care Marketing Mixed / Marketing Operations Higher Education	Declared	1,800	30
B	Standard (low risk)		Mixed	1,800	30
C	Standard (medium risk)		Declared	300	5
D	Standard (medium risk)		Mixed	300	5
E	Standard (high risk)		Declared	30	0.08
F	Standard (high risk)		Mixed	30	0.08
P	Special	Charity	Special	60	1
S	Special	Social	Special	60,000	1,000
Q	Special	Political	Special	3,000	50
X	Special	Emergency	Special	3,000	50
Z	Special	CSP Trial	Special	60	1
Y	Special	Trusted carrier exception	Special	1,800	30
W	Special	Less trusted exception	Special	1,800	30

Subscriber Information & Message Content

Each campaign registered for 10DLC requires a full brand and campaign use case analysis in order to determine registration approval.. There may be additional data and messages content types that will require additional approvals, like embedded links within the message content. Subscriber management is also another key area which we will see more requirements from carriers. Our Vonage 10DLC specialists will guide you through this approval process and have included some additional considerations below.

Name	Description	Notes
Subscriber Opt-in	Record that the subscriber has opted into the receiving the messages.
Subscriber Opt-out	Does the subscriber have the ability to opt-out of receiving messages through keywords e.g. “STOP“, “QUIT“, etc.
Subscriber Help	Is there a 'help' mechanism through MO help key words such as 'HELP', 'INFO'.
Age Gated	Is message content age gated
Direct Lending	Do the messages contain any direct lending or loan arrangement content?
Affiliate Marketing	Are the messages controlled by an affiliate other than the brand?
Embedded Link	Is there a call-to-action link/URL to be embedded in all messages sent.
Embedded Phone	Is there a call-to-action phone number to be embedded in all messages.
Number Pool	If a campaign is using over 50 numbers it needs to be specified as using a Pool as this can be seen as trying to snowshoe.
Minimum Number of Use Cases	Minimum number of message examples for approval
Maximum Number of Use Cases	Maximum number of message examples for approval

Registering a Campaign

Selecting a Use Case

There are 2 main categories:

Standard - covers most use cases and content types
Special - more complex or unusual use cases and requirements such as political, emergency traffic and trials accounts

The definitions are clear, however there are some that most likely need a little more explanation:

Standard:Mixed - It would be easier to create only “Mixed” campaigns. This may be seen as avoidance of following guidelines of specifying traffic so this use case should be used with caution
Standard:Low Volume Mixed - This would be assigned to a brand with a higher risk rating, most likely we would not want to register a campaign against this type of use case
Special:Large CSP Trial - Only relates to a Service Provider such as Vonage. If there is a valid case for one of our customers such as if they are a trading customer this could be selected
Special:Conversational Messaging - It’s important to note with 10DLC carriers are seeing any communications from a business to a subscriber to is not traditional P2P and must be registered for 10DLC
Special:Charity - Note that this may only be available to a “not for profit“ brand entity type

Providing subscriber and message information

One of the components of 10DLC is having clearer management of subscriber information and participation. Mobile Network Operators (MNO) may need to review values submitted and The Campaign Registry API may return responses defining what is required and what must not be used based on brand and campaign.

Subscriber Approval & Help

The following items may be required for approval.

Subscriber Opt-in - Record that the subscriber has opted into the receiving the messages.
Subscriber Opt-out - Does the subscriber have the ability to opt-out of receiving messages through keywords e.g. “STOP“, “QUIT“, etc.
Subscriber Help - Is there a 'help' mechanism through MO help key words such as 'HELP', 'INFO'.

Message Content

The following content could determine if a campaign is approved.

Age Gated - Is message content age gated
Direct Lending - Do the messages contain any direct lending or loan arrangement content?
Affiliate Marketing - Are the messages controlled by an affiliate other than the brand?
Embedded Link - Is there a call-to-action link/URL to be embedded in all messages sent.
Embedded Phone - Is there a call-to-action phone number to be embedded in all messages.

Number Management

Required to determined if a campaign can be misused.

Number Pool - If a campaign is using over 50 numbers it needs to be specified as using a Pool as this can be seen as trying to snowshoe.

Message Samples

Approval and delivery through the MNO can be dependent on whether the submitted content during campaign registration matches the content that is actually sent which why messages samples are required.

Minimum Number of Use Cases - Minimum number of message examples for approval

Maximum Number of Use Cases - Maximum number of message examples for approval