What does A2P 10DLC stand for and why should I care? | smrtPhone Help Center (2024)

A2P 10DLC (or sometimes just A2P) is the shorthand telecom providers are using to mean being an "authorized" sender of business-related text messages.

You register for A2P10DLC directly through the smrtPhone Trust Center.

In this article you'll find:

U.S. text/SMS infrastructure was not built to withstand the volume of business texting that occurs today. Plus, this channel is being abused by scammers and spammers - and US Carriers are taking action to protect their consumers.

The carriers have built a new channel specifically for business texting, with promised greater throughput and deliverability. All business texting is required to go through this channel. Carriers consider any text message sent from a technology application to be considered "business texting" even if it is person-to-person. To gain access to this channel, you must have an approved business texting plan and identify which phone numbers from which you will be texting.

THERE ARE PENALTIES FOR NOT REGISTERING

Unregistered business text messages will incur higher per-message fees and will be greater targets for review for TCPA violations and potential penalties.

Mobile carriers have started filtering out messages from non-registered numbers. It is an opaque process and there is no warning nor error message if your text does not go through. You would only find out from hearing from your contact that they did not receive it. Further, carriers will not troubleshoot any issues associated with unregistered text messages sent from any application. The message we received was, "Unregistered traffic is expected to fail."

A2P 10DLC stands for Application-to-Person messaging using a 10-Digit Long Code phone number. Translation to layperson terms: it means you’re using software technology to send text messages using a local phone number.

The alternative methods to A2P 10DLC messaging are:

A2P 10DLC is a great way for businesses to reach customers because it allows for efficient communications at scale. You use a local, recognizable area code which builds trust as you slide into consumers’ most guarded, urgent inbox.

All text communications on local numbers through any cloud phone system (including smrtPhone) are considered application-to-person (A2P) by mobile carriers who receive and deliver the messages to their subscribers. The move toward verification requirements affects all communication providers.

This change is driven by the receiving carriers and is the new industry standard; it is not specific to smrtPhone. We are here to help guide you through the process and make it as easy as possible to comply with these new standards.

Mobile Carriers Now Require Businesses Who Text To Register

As business-to-consumer texting has increased in popularity, there has been an increase in bad actors who abuse the channel. Because of mounting complaints, the three largest mobile carriers in America (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile/Sprint) have decided to implement a verification method to improve the customer experience.

Short code and toll-free messaging already require verification, and A2P 10DLC verification is the logical next step to build greater trust between businesses and consumers and provide consumers greater control over their message inboxes.

As an authorized source of text messages, you will separate yourself from the spammers and scammers, improving the deliverability of text messages and increasing consumer trust. There will be dedicated routes for A2P verified traffic, resulting in improved reliability.

As part of becoming A2P authorized, you will receive a "Trust Score" which states your reputation in the eyes of mobile carriers. Trust scores will be ranked low/medium/high. The better your trust score, the greater your deliverability speed and volume - you can send more messages, faster.

Verification already exists for short codes and toll-free numbers, and studies show increased ROI for verified messages.

Benefits of A2P 10DLC include:

There are two main consequences of not registering for A2P 10DLC:

Unregistered traffic will incur an additional $0.004 fee per SMS and between $0.005-0.013 per MMS (depending on receiving carrier). This is in addition to standard text messaging fees.

Messages sent by unverified providers will be subject to heavier filtering by mobile carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. This means they will not be guaranteed to be delivered. If they are delivered, they may be marked as "spam likely" in the recipient's message inbox.

Eventually, not only will these messages be cut off, but carriers have discussed penalty fees for business texting that is unregistered. (Timeline TBD)

❗❗❗ Note: Traffic from local long-codes to US Numbers without an A2P 10DLC tag is expected to fail. Carriers will not take escalations without A2P 10DLC registration.

There are three steps to registering for A2P 10DLC:

Please note: as of October 4, 2022 the previously available "Starter Plan" was deprecated and no new registrations accepted.

Once your plan registration is approved, you can add/edit the phone numbers you'd like to associate with the texting plan/campaign.