Updated A2P 10DLC Registration Guidelines in the US

Oct 18, 2022

Effective immediately, Plivo is pausing the support for Starter brand and campaign registrations due to new requirements and regulations for 10DLC in the US from The Campaign Registry (TCR).

What are Starter brands?

Starter brands, termed Sole Proprietorship registrations by TCR, are meant for small businesses and individuals who do not have an EIN. Since their launch, Starter brands have offered a simplified registration path for customers who are not registered businesses to access 10DLC phone numbers.

What’s changing with Starter brands?

TCR is changing its regulations with respect to Starter (Sole Proprietor) registrations. Starter brands will no longer be allowed for businesses that have a valid EIN and all Starter brand registrations will be subject to significantly more validations and checks to ensure adherence to 10DLC guidelines. These changes are coupled with steep increases in pricing.

How is Plivo’s approach changing?

Given the changes to Starter brands and the inability of businesses that have EINs to use them, we feel the utility of a Starter brand is quite low at the moment. Hence, we’re pausing support for Starter brands and campaigns. This means you cannot register new Starter brands and campaigns from the Plivo console or APIs effective immediately. Existing Starter brands and campaigns will be deactivated on October 30. Unless you take further action (see below), messaging traffic on those campaigns will start being considered unregistered. This means higher surcharges and possibly higher filtering.

What are Plivo’s updated recommendations for 10DLC?

Based on conversations with industry operators and carriers, Plivo is changing its recommendations with respect to 10DLC registrations. Since Starter brand registration is not an option at this time, you must register your business as a Standard brand. Plivo strongly recommends taking advantage of optional vetting for your brand if your messaging volume exceeds 6,000 per day.

If your daily messaging volume is less than 6,000 messages, you can opt for a low-volume mixed campaign.
If your messaging volume is higher, you can choose from a variety of campaign types for your messaging requirement.

You can refer to the following table to make a call on the right type of registration for you.

Brand	Campaign type	Vetting Fee	Campaign Fee	Volume limits
Standard without vetting (requires EIN)	Low-volume mixed campaign	NA	$2 per month $1.5 per month beginning November 3, 2022	Up to 6,000 messages per campaign per day
Standard with additional vetting (requires EIN)	Other campaigns (2FA, account notifications, mixed, etc.)	$40 one time	$10 per month	No limit on messages per campaign per day
Starter (for entities that don’t have an EIN)	Support paused for the time being

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Note: Effective October 1, 2022, T-Mobile is waiving its one-time campaign activation fee of $50 to encourage 10DLC registration.

We understand that Starter brands simplified 10DLC for a lot of businesses and this change may disrupt the way you set up your messaging applications.

Plivo remains committed to providing the most seamless messaging solutions to all of its customers and we are in constant communication with TCR and carriers for the way ahead on this subject. We will share an update as soon as we have something to share.