10DLC Messaging Overview, TCR Fees and Non-Compliance Fines

This document serves as a guide to adhere to A2P / 10DLC compliance on the NexGen Telecom network. As we are notified of coming changes by our upstream message service providers, this guide will be updated appropriately. 

In the context of A2P/10DLC, Campaign refers to ‘Use Case’ while Brand refers to a ‘Company Entity.’ Please visit our Glossary of Terms for A2P/10DLC and Toll-Free Messaging Compliance Article for definitions on terms found within this article.

General Overview

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) in conjunction with wireless service providers adopted “Messaging Principles and Best Practices” as an industry standard to Protect Consumers from Unwanted Messages, particularly from high-volume messaging traffic.  With this intent in mind, the industry made a distinction in the handling of “consumer” Person to Person (P2P) and “Non-Consumer” Application to Person (A2P) messages via 10 Digit Long Code (10DLC).  

A business line with a local area code (10 Digit Long Code) can now be considered a carrier-sanctioned messaging channel to communicate with consumers, thereby classifying business lines as A2P.  P2P consumer message traffic is of an individual person who subscribes to specific wireless messaging services or messaging applications. Therefore, all messaging traffic on Nex Gen Telecom is considered A2P.   

Note: The carrier’s business rules for A2P message handling are changing frequently. Please be on the look out for updates in the near future.

NexGen Telecom A2P/10DLC Service Requirements 

All messaging traffic originating from NexGen Telecom to its upstream providers is considered A2P and must comply with A2P/10DLC carrier policies. This includes all messaging applications; ReachUC, vBroadcast,  SMS Bot Responder and any future SMS delivery platform made available will need to be compliant. 

For Verizon, they have distinct routing in place between P2P and A2P traffic.  This allows Verizon to monitor and filter bad actors on their A2P routes. This has been in effect since Q1 of 2020, including Verizon A2P traffic surcharges.

For ATT & T-Mobile, including any of their subsidiaries (e.g Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS, etc.), A2P/10DLC compliance means registering the message sender’s Brand (logo) and Campaign (use case) with the “The Campaign Registry” (TCR).  

TCR is the organization that will assess the trust score assigned to each brand and pass that information along to the carriers.

NexGen Telecom is a registered CSP with TCR.  This allows NexGen Telecom to register their associated Brands and campaigns and or end-customer Brands and campaigns. 

Once a business is registered, messaging throughput is not fixed for every campaign. Carriers determine the throughput for a campaign by doing a thorough assessment of your business and use case collected by TCR.  

Key assessment areas include:

• Brand Identity Verification: TCR validates the EIN, Legal Company Name, and Legal Company Address with third-party independent sources and confirms the existence of the Brand with a verification “Status” (Verified/Unverified). Being a “Verified” Brand is a requirement to message on 10DLC, and Identity Verification is a crucial step for each registered Brand. We suggest paying close attention in entering correct and up-to-date information to allow the Brand to be swiftly verified.
• Class/Tier Assignment: Upon Brand verification, TCR will assign available Classes (AT&T) or Tiers (T-Mobile) according to whether or not a verified Brand is part of the Russell 3000 list. Verified Brands who are not part of the Russell 3000 list can improve their Class/Tier assignment through vetting.

TCR provides the ability for “Vetting” of Brands to gain access to special use cases or improve quality of service.  The current cost for Vetting a Brand is $40.00.

Brand and campaign approvals can be immediate or take three to four business days depending on the campaign use case. We will notify Customers via email when a brand has been approved.  

Note: You can have multiple Telephone Numbers (TNs) associated with one Campaign, however, you cannot have multiple Campaigns associated with a TN. NexGen Telecom will associate each Campaign ID in our messaging gateway with a TN(s) at your direction. Thereafter, the Campaign ID will be included in every message data record sent to the receiving carrier. 

Messaging Types Supported by NexGen Telecom

Attributes	10DLC	Toll-Free
Messaging Type	A2P	A2P
Voice-Enabled	Yes (US/Canada)	Yes (US/Canada)
Verification Required	Yes	Yes
Use Case Approval Required	Yes	Strongly Recommended
NexGen Telecom Use Case Approval Time	1-2 Days	4-5 Days
Throughput	Varies by Carrier	Varies by Carrier
Mobile Phone Receipt Delivery	Best Effort	Yes (US/Canada)
Required Keywords	Opt-In, Opt-Out, and Help	STOP, UNSTOP

TCR Costs

TCR Costs include a one-time fee of $14.00 for Brand Registration and a one-time Campaign Registration fee of $70 per Campaign ($50 Campaign Fee goes into effect TBD). Additionally, there are monthly recurring fees for running campaigns that can vary between $12 and $20 per month based on the use case that is billed monthly for a 3-month term.

Note: Once a campaign has expired, that campaign cannot be made active again. If you wish to restart an expired campaign, you will be required to create a new campaign and pay the $70 Campaign Registration Fee once it becomes applicable.

A2P/10DLC Non-Compliance Fines

Carriers are imposing serious fines and we all need to be responsible to avoid these penalties.

For this reason, NexGen Telecom will block any outgoing messages not associated with a valid Campaign ID to eliminate the possibility of costly fines.  

Note: This will not stop a bad actor operating under an approved Brand and Campaign for “Content Violation.” Any customer violating this will responsible for Non-Compliance fees.

T-Mobile’s New Non-Compliance Fees for Code of Conduct Violations

Violation Type	Non-Compliance Fee	Violation Description
Text Enablement	$10,000	This pass-through fee applies if T-Mobile receives a complaint where you or your message sender text-enables a 10-digit NANP telephone number and sends messages prior to verification of message sender ownership.
10DLC long code messaging program evasion	$1,000	The pass-through fee will apply per-incident if a program is found to use evasion techniques such as snowshoeing, unauthorized number replacement, and dynamic routing.
Content violation	$10,000	T-Mobile may charge this pass-through fee for each unique instance of the third or any subsequent notification of a content violation involving the same content provider. Defined as sending messages in violation of the rules in the code of conduct, and are usually SHAFT violations (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms or tobacco) but also includes spam or phishing, or messaging which meets the threshold of a severity 0 violation per the CTIA shortcode monitoring handbook.

T-Mobile (including Sprint) has announced the following A2P 10DLC Fee, which will be effective TBD by T-Mobile: 

Special Request	Fee	Description
Special business review request	$5,000 NRC per request	Applies to 10DLC edge cases outside of the regular 10DLC provisioning process which requires special approval and configuration on the T-Mobile network. For instance, use of proxy numbers (rideshare example), approval for sharing a 10DLC number, or very high capacity required by a brand more than what is normally required.