10DLC Compliance Can't Wait

25 May 2022

If you’re using long codes as part of your SMS strategy in the US, chances are you’ve heard about 10DLC, a new service for sending text messages that all of the major US carriers have implemented. With carriers now enforcing 10DLC with penalties such as costly surcharges and reduced deliverability, it’s almost certain that 10DLC is impacting your long code deliverability in some fashion.

The SMS boom

Over the last few years, businesses have increasingly turned to text messaging to reach their customers. 10DLC was created to address two key issues: the need for an affordable alternative to short codes and the need to reduce text-based spam for cell phone users.

Short codes are a perfect solution for high-volume texting situations such as major marketing campaigns. However, short codes are expensive and are not the best option for lower-volume use cases where personalization is important.

To keep their costs down, many businesses were using long codes for application-to-person (A2P) texting. However, long codes were never meant for A2P messaging, but rather for P2P (person to person), low-throughput messaging. In addition, while short codes required carrier approval, long codes didn’t, which led to high volumes of spam.

10DLC compliance

To protect their customers, mobile carriers needed to make sure that businesses were registering their long codes as 10DLC numbers for A2P use cases. When they register, companies must provide details about their businesses and use cases (brands and campaigns) so the carriers can check them for legitimacy and appropriateness. Each carrier has come up with penalties for not registering 10DLC numbers, which include surcharges, fines, increased filtering, decreased throughput and deliverability, and the potential to be blocked from sending SMS messages. If you’re using long codes for A2P texting, 10DLC registration is now mandatory.

The carriers are committed to providing a better user experience for their customers by decreasing spam and increasing consumer trust. Enforcing 10DLC registration is a key step in accomplishing those goals.

10DLC benefits

10DLC provides several benefits over short codes and toll-free numbers. 10DLC provides throughput of up to 4,500 transactions per minute, which is almost 100 times more than unregistered long codes. (Short codes can deliver higher throughput, but they cost far more to register and incur higher monthly fees.) Other 10DLC benefits include high deliverability rates, flexibility in campaign types, and the ability to use local numbers.