Overview: 10DLC

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This article explains the basics of 10DLC industry standards and how they relate to your Avaya.cx account.

In this article

What is 10DLC?

10DLC is sanctioned business to consumer messaging which is governed by a set of industry standards and regulations that are intended to protect consumers from bad actors and unwanted text messages. 10DLC numbers are local phone numbers that are classified as A2P (application-to-person). 

All A2P traffic must be registered with the industry for approval.

Background

The messaging ecosystem was largely unregulated until 2017, when the CTIA stepped in to create the Messaging Principles & Best Practices. These guidelines were created to help the industry begin to self-regulate in an effort to protect consumers from fraudsters and other bad actors. In 2021, A2P 10DLC was formally adopted by the industry. This requires businesses to declare their traffic and to have it verified as compliant.

Since the industry’s adoption of 10DLC, message deliverability has been easier to ensure, and the number of bad actors has generally decreased.

AVAYA CLASSIFIES ALL MESSAGING TRAFFIC AS A2P

(If you believe your use case is an exception to this please reach out to LNP@avaya.cx.)

Registration process

If you choose to send messages to customers from a local number, you will be required to submit your brand and campaign for approval to the industry. The process for submitting includes:

For more information on this process, see: Register a 10DLC brand and campaign.

Tips for creating your campaign(s)

Be sure to read our Messaging Best Practices for a better understanding of the rules and requirements that regulate the messaging ecosystem. 

Note: The Brand registration process will assign a trust score to the brand. Based on that trust score and the campaign content itself, a throughput volume is determined for the numbers submitted.

Properly implemented campaigns

Before sending out messages, you must receive consent from the end user that they want to receive your messages. A clear call to action should ensure that receiver are aware of:

Example of incorrectly implemented campaign

To help demonstrate, sending the following message without an explicit opt-in is prohibited. Simply providing an opt-out is not a substitute for obtaining consent. 

“Here’s your coupon for 99 cents off your next order at [COMPANY]. [LINK]. Reply STOP to opt out.”

10DLC campaign types

There are four overarching 10DLC campaign types:

Continue reading the subsections below to learn more about these campaign types.

Low Volume

Low Volume campaigns are designed for sending fewer than 15,000 messages a month across all carriers.

Sole Proprietor

Sole Proprietor campaigns are available for customers who don’t have an EIN number.

Standard

Standard campaigns include the following examples:

Special

Special campaigns include the following examples:

Campaign approval: Messaging throughputs

Throughputs can vary by carrier and by campaign type, however this is a high level overview for standard campaigns by brand score.

Practices to avoid

High frequency messages

​​Senders should avoid sending a high frequency of messages to subscribers. Senders may not send more than 10 messages to a recipient in any 24 hour period unless the following conditions are met:

Spoofing

Senders may not represent or identify themselves as another individual or business in any way. More specifically, you may not use the message body or the phone number in a way that would lead the recipient to believe you are another individual or business.

Information phishing / fraud

Sending messages with fraudulent information or phishing to get confidential information from a recipient is explicitly prohibited.

Frequently asked questions

Is verification the same thing as whitelisting?

No! Whitelisting is when a number is added to an approved list while denying other numbers that are not on the list. Verification is similar in that the number gets identified as verified and added to an approved list, however it does not mean that the number will never experience filtering or blocking. Especially if there are a lot of customer complaints (7726 complaints) or content that violates industry best practices.

How is the trust score for a business determined?

In short, carriers want to be sure that their customers will not receive unwanted, dangerous, and spam-like text messages. An independent agency will assign your business a trust score based on whether your use case is low or high risk. A “low-risk” use case may be something like two-factor authentication. A high-risk use case may be sending messages about debt relief.

Do all mobile operators follow the same guidelines?

Mobile operators do follow the same set of industry best practices and guidelines, however there is some variation in how they implement them. The main difference is between AT&T and T-Mobile.

Can I use one number to send different types of campaigns?

This is referred to as a mixed campaign (instead of a dedicated campaign). This is allowed with special considerations for your use case and campaign type. Please note; when use cases share a campaign, non-compliant messaging on one use case could suspend service for the entire campaign.

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