Vitelity Direct Customers - Getting Registered for SMS Messaging

What to do to get registered

Why The Change to Registration for Messaging 

With changes to the current messaging landscape, mobile carriers are now requiring any business users that send SMS messages over 10-digit numbers (A2P 10DLC) to have those numbers registered with an organization called The Campaign Registry (TCR). https://www.campaignregistry.com/. 

The intent is to cut down on text message spam that has become a growing problem for their mobile customers. Registering with TCR allows TCR to review your use-case for what you intend to use messaging for, link the Brand (the business entity sending the messages) and the Campaigns (each specific use-case) with the CSP (Campaign Service Providers), along with the list of telephone numbers the messages will be sent from, all with the purpose of providing complete traceability back to the originator of any message. If your messages are determined to be non-compliant, the mobile carriers will happily send us a fine, which we will then pass on to you. Repeated non-compliance will result in the mobile carriers blocking your number completely from messaging. 

In order to prevent the risk of financial penalties, we will take the step of disabling all SMS messaging for use with Vitelity numbers beginning May 1st, 2022.

If you do want to keep sending messages vis SMS, the source numbers require a registration with TCR. However, until the whole registration process is complete and approved, we cannot enable you to send SMS messages again once they are disabled.

Steps to Get Registered 

Fortunately, as our customer, you don't need to do the registration process with TCR directly. We are your CSP (Campaign Service Provider) and will file your Brand and Campaign information for you with TCR. With that said, we will be asking a lot of information about your company, the intended uses for messaging and the list of phone numbers you'll be sending messages from. All of this information is REQUIRED by TCR to evaluate and vet your request. They are trained to know what will pass the mobile carrier's scrutiny in terms of your registration request. 

NOTE: Fees also apply to brand and campaign registrations. The fees are listed at the bottom of this article. 

Cheat Sheet Form 

To start, we have a handy form here: 

A2P 10DLC Messaging Campaign Form 

This form contains all the information that we need to file your request with TCR. 

Brand Information 

The first page is the Brand information. This is information about your company and should be pretty clear about what to fill out. A Brand can have multiple Campaigns if you have different use-cases that you use messaging for. 

Campaign Information 

The second page is the Campaign you will be filing. Note that "Campaign" is used loosely here in that it's normally associated with a text message blast, but in the context of filing for messaging use-cases, it really means what is going to be the content of your messages. 

For your usage, the campaign choice really depends on how you are using messaging to communicate with customers and most importantly, the content of those messages. 

If you have a lot of time, here is a very detailed article on what is A2P 10 DLC messaging and all the related information, most of which you don't really need to know to complete the form. 

Everything You Wanted to Know About A2P 10DLC But Were Afraid To Ask 

It's a lot as the mobile carriers have made this very complex. 

However, since you don't really need to know all this, we'll list some parts of that info that will help in deciding how to fill out the campaign info. 

We have a doc with a list of Best Practices for a successful messaging campaign. Note that this doc has a lot of detailed information, so the sections that might be relevant for your business are Section 6 and Section 8. There are some useful notes in here about how to not run afoul of the mobile carrier's rules around content, which is where much of the focus is. 

Messaging Best Practices 

For example, common use-cases will likely be "Low-volume mixed" if you are using messaging with a soft client. When choosing this campaign type, select the types of content you might be sending, like "Customer Care" or perhaps "Marketing". Many of the other types are more common for automated systems (2FA, Account Notifications, etc). For these types, the volume will likely be higher and not be appropriate for the “low-volume mixed” use case. Again, keep in mind the expected content of your messages will help determine the use-case category to choose. 

For "Campaign Content and Attributes", most of these will likely not apply to your messages except for "Embedded Link" and "Embedded Phone Number". If you commonly add a link or phone number to messages, Section 8.12.2 and Section 8.12.3 should be read and understood as these can easily trigger a review of your messaging campaign if you don't follow the recommendations. For example, the use of URL shorteners is a good way to get your messages banned. 

The Campaign Description should be something about how you are using messaging, and some sample messages you might send are required to help TCR in evaluating your use-case and content. 

And finally, the list of telephone numbers (TNs) that should be allowed to send/receive SMS messages as part of this campaign. 

Where To Send the Form 

Once you have the form filled out, you can email this to MessagingUseCase@inteliquent.com. Please include the following: 

Subject Line: SMS Brand/Campaign Form for Vitelity 

Body: Include a brief description of what you are requesting and include additional contact info in your email request such as an authorized user on your account. 

Attachment: Don't forget to attach your filled-out form to the request and list the exact TNs that will be included in your campaign. 

Fees 

The Campaign Registry (TCR) charges fees for their various services. The fees that we will be passing through are the following: 

As an example, a typical brand and campaign registration would incur approx. $25 in fees. This would consist of the $10 TCR brand fee and the $15 fee per campaign. Typically, you might need only one campaign for your brand depending on the content. You would need separate campaigns if you are sending a higher volume of messages and sending content that would fall under different use-cases.

Penalties 

Watch your content. There are heavy penalties that will be passed on especially by T-Mobile for any content violations. Some examples include the following: 

If we are charged one of these fees due to a violation of your brand/campaign, we will pass these on to you. Repeated violations will result in your brand being blocked from future messaging campaigns. 

Other operators may add penalties in the future.