A SANCTIONED ENVIRONMENT
“TCR™ works with North American mobile operators and companies that are in the messaging business to register Application-to-Person (A2P) text messaging Campaigns. The registry supports a sanctioned A2P 10 Digit Long Code (10DLC) text messaging Campaign ecosystem and provides visibility into the messaging source and content, allowing mobile carriers to provide a more reliable and simple messaging service for Campaign Service Providers (CSPs) and Brands. Brands can now run their campaigns with confidence, knowing that they are using an officially sanctioned product for their messaging termination, 10DLC.” ~The Campaign Registry
10DLC SMS Campaign Registration
The Campaign Registry (TCR), representing the major mobile carriers, has mandated that all businesses desiring to send SMS/MMS messaging from their 10DLC numbers must register a brand for their company and create a campaign to register their use case. This campaign is then assigned at the carrier level to the telephone number(s). Their goal is to identify and block the ‘bad actors’ that send spam and junk to cell phones while allowing businesses with legitimate use cases to continue to send SMS communication.
Sole Proprietor Brand Restrictions
In Fall of 2022, TCR changed the requirements and fees for their Standard and Sole Proprietor brand/campaign types. Only business entities who file taxes under their Social Security Number may register their brand as a Sole Proprietor.
“The Campaign Registry (TCR) is introducing significant changes to the Sole Proprietor campaign type. These changes are addressing the continued registration abuse in the sole proprietor entity type through the incorrect registration of regular businesses as sole proprietors.” ~Campaign Registry
Any corporate entity wishing to send SMS communication from local numbers, who files taxes under a Federal Employer Identification Number (also referred to as Federal Tax ID number, FEIN or EIN), must be registered as a Standard brand and have a campaign type designed for a Standard brand. If you are interested, please refer to the Campaign Registry official video TCR Brand Registration for more information.
As a registered CSP, we interface directly with TCR on your behalf. Our customer portal easily creates brands and campaigns, and assigns campaigns to phone numbers on your account.
The ‘Standard’ Brand and Campaign
Unless your company is a legitimate Sole Proprietor, all of our new or existing customers must have a Standard Brand and Campaign in place in order send outbound SMS messages. New customers can let us know their outbound messaging needs. We’ll make sure you are comfortable using the customer portal and answer any questions you may have.
Whenever our existing customers port or provision a local number that needs SMS services, they must add a Standard campaign to that number.
Converting from an existing SP to a Standard Brand
If you are an existing customer with an SP campaign in place and need to convert to a Standard Brand/Campaign, there are few simple steps for you to take.
- Obtain the additional required information
- Create the brand/campaign in our customer portal
- Edit the phone number and replace the existing campaign with the newly created standard campaign.
What are the additional fields I need for a Standard Brand/Campaign?
- Legal Company Name: The company name that was registered with the IRS/Department of Treasury in order to obtain your Tax ID number.
- Federal Employer Identification Number: Commonly referred to as a Federal Tax ID number, FEIN or EIN
- Corporate Address: The address that was registered with their legal name and Tax ID number, as shown on the CP575.
- Corporate Website
Your Legal Company Name, FEIN and Corporate Address can be found on your CP575. This is the document that your business received from the IRS/Department of Treasury upon successfully registering your legal company name and receiving your Federal Tax ID number.
Note that this is your Federal Employer Identification Number, not any State ID number or any other corporate registration ID. It is the number with which you file taxes with the IRS.
TCR does not require that you submit any forms or documentation in order to register your brand.
We recommend that you review your CP575 before creating your brand. This document shows your Legal Company Name, Employer Identification Number and Corporate Address precisely as registered with the IRS. Because the TCR matches these fields with the IRS database, they must be entered correctly or the brand will remain in an unverified state until corrected. Any misspellings or mistyping of this information will result in a rejection. (We haven’t seen any rejections for address mismatch, however we repeatedly see rejections for even the smallest discrepancies in the legal company name.)
To dispute a TCR rejection, the only documentation the TCR will accept is an electronic copy of your CP575.
Why do I need to provide the EIN of the Brands that I register?
When you add a Brand to your CSP profile, we require you to enter its EIN (Sole Proprietors are excluded). This allows TCR to verify the identity of the Brand, which is a requirement for any campaign to be registered on 10DLC. It is crucial that the EIN matches the legal company name of the Brand you are registering for it to be correctly verified.
How can I be sure to enter the correct EIN/ Tax ID to have my Brand “Verified”
Tax ID number is used in conjunction with the company’s name, address, and other information to ensure we perform a background investigation on the correct company. The following guidance will provide the best recognition opportunity for your company.
United States If you are a US company or a foreign company with a US IRS Employer Identification Number (EIN), please enter that nine-digit number in the EIN field and ensure that your legal company name is consistent with your IRS registration and is properly spelled. The address you enter should also be the same as that used in registering with the IRS.
~Campaign Registry, FAQ
Each Brand Must Pass a Verification Step
Verification is a crucial step where the TCR compares the Legal Company Name and FEIN with the IRS database. If there is any discrepancy, the verification will fail. Until the brand passes verification, no campaign can be created.
TCR checks the Legal Company Name, FEIN, and corporate address with the Dept of Treasury/IRS database and will reject the brand if there is any discrepancy.
TCR assesses a $4 fee to create the brand, even if it fails verification. To submit a correction to the brand, a $4 fee is assessed each time. Consider how quickly the fees add up if it takes 10 corrections to finally get a brand verified. Additionally, because you can’t create a campaign until your brand successfully verifies, you will not be able to send any outbound SMS until you correct the discrepancy. Anything you can do to provide precise information right from the start will reduce delays and fees.
Verified Brands Are Eligible for Campaigns
Upon successful verification, the brand is now eligible for campaign creation. Once the Regular brand/campaign has been created, you can assign this campaign to your company’s outbound SMS number(s). This Standard Campaign can be assigned to up to 49 phone numbers.
Valid Sole Proprietor Brands
Any business owner who files taxes under their Social Security Number is eligible for a Sole Proprietor (SP) brand/campaign. However, there is one additional change here. TCR requires the owner’s cell phone number in order to verify this SP status with the owner in what they call an “OTP validation of mobile phone.”
If your company falls legitimately in the SP category, you must add the cell phone to your brand or it will enter a deactivated state after 12/31/2022.
If your company has an SP Brand/Campaign and needs to create a Regular Brand/Campaign instead, anticipate that your SP Brand/Campaign will be deactivated after 12/31/2022.
TCR Deadlines
Campaign Registry published the following deadlines for 2022.
Starting November 3rd: All new sole proprietor brands must go through validation. Brands that do not pass “Brand data validation” will be rejected. Those that do not pass “OTP validation of mobile phone” will be set to “unverified” status and will not be able to register campaigns.
November 3rd : all existing SP Brands will be set to “unverified”. Existing campaigns will work. New campaigns for existing “unverified” brands cannot be registered.
Starting in November: TCR will run a validation process on previously registered SP entities.
End of December: Deadline for CSPs to validate existing Sole Props via the Sole prop 2.0 process – Any unverified SP entities and their campaigns will be deactivated.~Campaign Registry
At the end of December, TCR states, “any unverified SP entities and their campaigns will be deactivated.” SMS communication will not be delivered by the receiving carriers until the phone number is assigned to a verified campaign. All corporate entities must have Regular campaigns assigned to their messaging phone numbers by the end of 2022 in order to continue sending SMS communication without interruption.
We Value Your Privacy
We understand anyone’s hesitancy to share their corporate information. However, we must obtain this information in order to provide SMS services for your 10DLC numbers. Inventive Labs Corporation (Voice Elements Corporation) carefully protects the privacy of all of our customers and their end users. We do not sell any information. The information we obtain for TCR brand and campaign creation is solely used for that purpose. We take special care of our customer information and work hard to protect your information. See Voice Elements Privacy Policy.
Toll Free Verification
There is an entirely separate process to verify your Toll Free numbers (TFNs) that send outbound SMS messages. Even TFNs sending outbound messages in very low volumes can experience blocking if the message contains links. Please see Toll Free Messaging Verification to learn how to submit your TFNs for verification.
Questions or Concerns?
If you have concerns about the type of Brand/Campaign that you have registered with TCR, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We can make sure your brand, campaign, and use case fit your messaging needs.
For detailed information about how to register your Brand & Campaign in our customer portal, please Contact Us.
If you are in need of excellent SMS services, schedule an appointment to talk with our tech team. Let’s explore your communication needs and how we can help!
Messaging Industry Resources
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices
https://api.ctia.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/170119-ctia-messaging-principles-and-best-practices.pdf
MMA Best Practices
https://www.mmaglobal.com/files/bestpractices.pdf
M3AAWG Best Practices
https://www.m3aawg.org/sites/default/files/m3aawg-mobile-messaging-best-practices-service-providers-2015-08_0.pdf
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) Omnibus Declaratory Ruling (FCC 15-72)
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-72A1.pdf
FTC Truth in Advertising
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising