A2P 10DLC (Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code) was designed as a messaging solution that enables businesses to send text messages from a local 10DLC number in the United States (US). A2P 10DLC is designed and sanctioned for business messaging. It offers upgraded stability, delivery reliability, and security to businesses and their audiences. It also supports the volume of messaging throughput that many companies need.
In this article, you'll learn some background information about A2P 10DLC and learn how to use it in your organization.
This article covers the following topics:
- A2P 10DLC Background
- Registering (requirements for A2P 10DLC)
- Understanding different types of Zendesk Text use cases
- T-Mobile's A2P 10DLC Non-Compliance Fines
A2P 10DLC background
The US long codes widely used by businesses in previous years were designed only for person-to-person (P2P) communications. They have low volume throughput and lack necessary security standards, resulting in many spam messages being sent to customers. Phone carriers consider them to be an unsanctioned route for business texts. For this reason, messages are often subject to blocking and throttling.
Verizon was the first US carrier to introduce A2P 10DLC messaging in 2019. Increased demand for high throughput text messaging for legitimate use cases spurred other carriers (including T-Mobile & AT&T) to launch their own version of 10DLC in 2021.
Registering (requirements for A2P 10DLC)
US carriers implemented A2P 10DLC; therefore, businesses that use Zendesk to communicate with their US-based customers through text messaging must register their business information and use cases to avoid carrier filtering. To register, fill in the Zendesk Text A2P 10DLC Registration form.
Understanding different types of Zendesk Text use cases
If you are required to register for A2P 10DLC, let us know your specific use case for using Zendesk Text. The following table lists the different use case scenarios:
Use case |
Description |
Two-factor authentication (2FA) |
Any authentication or account verification, such as a one-time password (OTP). |
Account notifications |
Notifications about the status of an account or related to being a part of an account. |
Customer care |
Support, account management, and other avenues of customer interaction. |
Delivery notifications |
Information regarding the status of a delivery. |
Fraud alert messaging |
Messaging about a potentially fraudulent activity, such as spending alerts. |
Higher education |
Message campaigns from colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. |
Marketing |
Promotional content such as sales and limited-time offers. |
Mixed |
A campaign that covers multiple use cases, such as customer care and delivery notifications. |
Polling and voting |
For conducting polling and voting, such as customer surveys. Not for political use. |
Public service announcement |
PSAs raise audience awareness about a given topic |
Security alert |
Notification of a compromised system (software or hardware related). |
T-Mobile's A2P 10DLC non-compliance fines
T-Mobile has rolled out non-compliance fines for A2P 10DLC messages that contain prohibited content. If T-Mobile identifies any messages that breach the violation tiers outlined below, they will issue a Sev-0 violation, the most severe consumer violation. This will result in a non-compliance fine, and carriers will promptly block the offending messages.
This policy applies to all commercial messaging non-consumer A2P products (SMS or MMS short code, toll-free, and 10DLC) that traverse the T-Mobile network.
Because Sev-0 violations also infringe on Twilio’s acceptable use and messaging policies, Zendesk will pass these fines to you for every Sev-0 violation. These fines include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Tier 1 includes phishing (including simulated phishing sent for security testing or similar purposes), smishing, and social engineering. Social Engineering is a technique that manipulates someone into sharing private information, like passwords or credit card numbers.
- Tier 2 includes illegal content (content must be legal federally and in all 50 states).
- Tier 3 includes all other violations in commercial messaging, including but not limited to SHAFT (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco), that do not follow federal and state law and regulations (e.g., age-gate).
These non-compliance fines apply to violations across any A2P messaging product (SMS/MMS short code, toll-free, and 10DLC). For more details, see your T-Mobile terms of service.
Consequences of Excessive Violations
T-Mobile reserves the right to permanently suspend any brands, campaigns, and your company’s access to the T-Mobile Network in the event violations are deemed to be excessive. If you are subject to these fines, Zendesk will send you a Sev-0 violation notice and will subsequently charge the respective fine amount.
For more information, review T-Mobile’s Code of Conduct Section 5: Prohibited Campaign Content.
15 comments
Ermelinda Kraft
I submitted my company's registration form last month. How long before I hear back from Zendesk that the application has been accepted?
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Christine Diego
I was able to find your existing ticket for submitting your Zendesk Text A2P 10 DLC registration form and this is already been working on, as of the moment, I cannot provide an ETA but if you have any questions or concern, you can send a reply on your existing ticket which you are currently CC'd.
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Cyber Support
I submitted my company's registration form. How can I know the status?
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Viktor Osetrov
Thanks a lot for your interest. We couldn't provide ETA. However, I can say that our managers will back to you with a response after reviewing it.
Best
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Ogle, Paul
Our texting is 100% reactionary, which is to say when our staff members submit a ticket via text, we respond via text. There is never any text sent that isn't in response to a communication initiated that way. So I've no idea what to do on this form, especially the consent section. We literally just answer via the same communication method as staff reach out; it's only for our staff members, no public users at all.
Edit: So it's implied consent, for conversational transactions initiated by our existing employees only. The Zendesk form's final page doesn't seem to have a mechanism for this, with it's statement about all applications without a link to consent mechanisms, and ours is simply if they text us, we text back. How would I properly document that on the form?
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Christine Diego
Hi Ogle, Paul,
I have checked with our team and this is indeed will fall into implied consent. You can probably use the sample below:
Our numbers can be found in www.domain.com which in turn will be used by our existing employee to contact us. We only send messages once we received an inbound message from our employees. We never initiate proactive, promotional or marketing related SMS . Once the concern has been resolved, it will be considered as an opt out and the customer will no longer receive any messages.
We will still refer to the workflow that you have.
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Robin Patton
How do we receive a confirmation that you've received our form and next steps?
ZenDesk alerts stated we needed to complete the form by 8-31. If we have done so, will we be able to send text messages after 9-1?
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Joyce
I see that you already opened a messaging ticket for this question. No confirmation email upon submission of the form and as noted in the registration form:
Unless you have provided us with the necessary documentation and received confirmation from our team that your account is registered, your number(s) remain unregistered.
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Ronald Vargas
Hi I just completed the Zendesk Sell Text A2P 10DLC Registration today 9/9/23 14:45 EST. I just want confirmation that my submission has been completed and being looked at. Also want to know if I get any confirmation email or such that everything is good to go. Thank you!
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Joyce
Upon checking, we received your registration on September 8, 2023, and it is currently in the verification process. Our team will reach out to you via email if we need further information and once the verification has been completed.
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Shawn Pillsbury
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Joyce
We appreciate your feedback on our A2P registration process, and we would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused. We'll let the respective know about this.
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Jason
I recently submitted this form as well - Is there a walkthrough on what to do in Twilio once our registration has been confirmed? (do we need to register via this Google form AND Twilio's Trust hub?
The fact that everything is not managed within Zendesk is so concerning, and having to navigate it without a dedicated support person adds more concern on top of that.
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Rosie
Thank you for submitting the form. We can check on our end the progress of the submitted form and this would need to contact our support. Once you completed the form, you don't need to do anything on your end. We will check the status on our end and update you. I can see that you have an existing ticket which is working with one of my colleague. I'll put more details for additional updates.
Apologies for the inconvenience here. Appreciate your patience.
Thank you!
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Lauren Giblin
If I'm porting am existing registered number, do I have to also register with Zendesk?
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