Because texting over local landline phone numbers has grown increasingly popular over the past few years, U.S. carriers want to make sure it stays that way – a channel customers can trust, that’s free of spam and unsolicited communications.

To accomplish that goal, carriers have together adopted a set of standards and registration processes for 10DLC numbers to better understand who is using 10DLC for A2P and what they’re sending across the network.

What is A2P messaging?

A2P stands for application-to-person, so A2P messaging is any message sent from an application.  A2P texting can be used for everything from appointment and billing reminders to promotional messages like sales and restock alerts. With A2P messaging, businesses can employ automation tools such as message scheduling, auto replies, text templates and more.

How does 10DLC impact business texting?

All businesses that send A2P messages on a 10DLC phone number are required by U.S. mobile carriers to register their brand with a chosen third-party partner. Businesses are then vetted and given a “trust score” that determines their daily message throughput. In addition to protecting consumers, controlling message quotas in this way allows the carriers to increase message speed and offer businesses better deliverability.

 If a business decides not to register their brand and continues using their 10DLC phone number, they will eventually experience disruption of service. Certain carriers will stop supporting SMS traffic from 10DLC numbers that are unregistered, meaning messages to customers on that carrier will fail and the sender will receive an error message.

What are the benefits of 10DLC?

• Text from a recognized local area code
• A cost-effective solution
• Improved deliverability and throughput
• A regulated channel protected from spam
• Text and call on the same phone number