Flowroute messaging update
All major wireless carriers have now announced support for Application to Person (A2P) Long Code messaging services for SMS and MMS. The new industry standard for A2P Long Code messaging is 10DLC.
- How does 10DLC affect you?
- Carrier fees
- Up-to-date carrier fee pricing (new window)
- Registration requirements
- Nationwide SMS carrier fees FAQ
What is 10DLC?
10DLC stands for a 10-digit long code. It is the new standard for A2P messaging in the US and applies to all messaging over 10-digit geographic phone numbers. As A2P messaging continues to increase year-over-year (it is projected to hit 3.5 trillion messages by 2023), carriers are focused on protecting consumers while ensuring good actors have access to the resources they need to engage with customers. 10DLC is expected to provide higher messaging throughput and better deliverability of messages.
Verizon was the first carrier to launch their 10DLC service, and now T-Mobile and AT&T are looking toward a Second Quarter launch.
All your long code message-enabled numbers with Flowroute will be treated as 10DLC numbers. The impact of 10DLC falls into two categories: Carrier fees, and Registration requirements.
Carrier fees: charged by wireless carriers for messages terminated to and/or originating from their numbers; passed through to customers.
The most up-to-date carrier fees and surcharges can be found here.
- Register your brand: Customers will be required to register their brand/business in order to continue sending messages.
- Register your campaign: After you register your brand, you’ll need to create one or more campaigns based on use cases for your A2P messaging. This will require selecting a use case, providing a description, and including sample messages for each campaign.
- Associate numbers to your campaign: Finally, you’ll need to specify which numbers are associated with each campaign.
Nationwide SMS carrier fee FAQ
How - With the rollout of 10DLC, Carriers are charging a fee per message for both SMS and MMS messages. If you are sending messages, you will not have to do anything differently. The carrier surcharges will be deducted from the available balance on your account.
Why - The carrier surcharge Helps Carriers monitor and protect customers from SPAM messages. It comes from an agreement among SMS providers to prevent overlooked spam messages from going to their customers. The fee also goes to keep creating a more stable SMS and MMS network as the technology improves. The cost is determined by the carrier's set cost. This fee varies by terminating the carrier, cost of operation, and available bandwidth.
What - The carrier surcharge fee is now an industry standard. The carrier fee goes directly to the carriers for the upkeep of emerging technologies and continuing stability of the network. The carrier fee charge is managed by The Campaign Register (TCR). TCR works as the database to verify an SMS or MMS user is not sending messages that are considered spam.
Where - You will encounter this carrier surcharge fee when you send any outbound SMS or MMS messages to your customer’s mobile phone numbers. transactions. This carrier fee is added to the cost by the carrier and is applied per message sent. You will see it only on outbound SMS or MMS and nowhere else in the Flowroute ecosystem.
When - The timeline is not concretely established but will be announced 30 days before rollout. Any delays will be aptly communicated via email and this page. More information as it becomes available will be updated here as well. T-Mobile and AT&T haven't finalized when they will start charging yet.
Registration - Although the carrier fee also applies to Short Code this distinction will not affect your messaging as Flowroute does not offer Short Code messaging. Long Code A2P any industry messaging platform will need to register once for a permanent account outlining your expected business or personal use of the messaging platform. This registration is a straightforward process which we will describe here as we work to make the process as easy to use as we can currently.
The Flowroute Registration Process
Please refer to this page for the most relevant information and current process details.