ISV US A2P 10DLC Onboarding Guide

US A2P 10DLC overview

This onboarding guide is for ISVs who want to register their customers for A2P 10DLC messaging capabilities.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of the various API calls you will make to register your end users for A2P 10DLC capabilities, please see our ISV API workflow.

ISVs are not limited to sending messages on behalf of their customers. As an ISV, you can also register campaigns to send messages for your own company’s brand. If you only send messages on behalf of your own company, please see our Direct Brand onboarding guide instead of this one.

US Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code (A2P 10DLC) messaging is the latest offering from US carriers to help support the growing number of businesses texting their customers while protecting end-users from unwanted messages. 10-digit long codes have traditionally been intended for Person-to-Person (P2P) traffic only, causing businesses to be constrained by limited throughput and heightened filtering.

The launch and support of A2P 10DLC across all carriers in the United States provides good actors with increased deliverability and throughput, but also requires additional registration to build trust with carriers. There are associated fees with this registration process and also per-message carrier fees.

Please see our support article for details of associated fees.

It’s best to think of US A2P 10DLC as comprising two operations: routes and registration. First, carriers prepare their routes for traffic on 10-digit long codes, after which they charge additional fees per outbound message segment. Second, the carriers require that a message originator register their US A2P brand and messaging campaign use cases. Registered traffic immediately benefits from reduced filtering. Twilio has created central process that allows customers to add and manage all required information via the Trust Hub.

In this guide, you will find a detailed explanation of how to register:

1. A Twilio Business Profile.
2. Access to the US A2P 10DLC ecosystem.
3. SMS campaign use cases within the ecosystem.

Trust Hub onboarding overview

The process of registering your US A2P brand and campaign use cases requires a series of form-fills and click-throughs. However, the registration process will vary depending on how your business is set up within Twilio.

Action required — see below for step-by-step instructions for each

• Gather the required information from your customers.
• Determine the ISV architecture and type for your business and customers.
• Within the Trust Hub, create a Twilio Primary Business Profile to represent your business.
• Register a US A2P brand for US A2P 10DLC capabilities.
• Register a new campaign use case and link it to a Messaging Service.

Pre-requisite: gather required information for A2P 10DLC registration

Before you begin the registration process for A2P 10DLC, you will need to have the following information on hand for each customer that you want to register:

Overview of ISV architectures for A2P 10DLC

We’ve seen many different patterns of how accounts, subaccounts, and messaging services are organized amongst our ISV customers. The diagrams below illustrates the full extent of how one could be organized and the relationship of US A2P brands and campaign use cases.

ISVs using subaccounts

For ISVs who use subaccounts for their customers, each subaccount contains the secondary business profile. Campaign use cases map to the secondary business profile and a Messaging Service.

If, as an ISV, you have a direct offering, you can use your US A2P brand directly and associate it with a campaign use case at the parent-account level.

ISVs using a single, top-level project (no subaccounts)

For ISVs who do not use subaccounts for their customers, the parent account contains all of the secondary business profiles. Campaign use cases map to the secondary business profile and a Messaging Service.

Pre-requisite: identify your ISV type

Identify your ISV type based on your architecture and organization. Depending on your type, follow the suggested brand and campaign registration instructions.

Identify your type in the table below and click on the corresponding number to familiarize yourself with the information architecture and the registration process.

ISV architecture #1

You use subaccounts for each customer. You will need to collect the required information from customers to fill in the business profile and campaign use case registration forms that make up US A2P 10DLC onboarding.

Information architecture

• Each subaccount contains a secondary business profile associated with that customer.
• Each campaign maps to that secondary business profile and a messaging service within that subaccount.
• Refer to the diagram for ISVs using subaccounts.

Registration process

• Review the information required for both US A2P Brand and Campaign use case registration in the Trust Hub.
• Request the required information from your customers. You can find a table with all the information here.
• Utilize the Trust Hub APIs to register secondary business profiles in each subaccount.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to enroll each secondary business profile for US A2P.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to create a Campaign use case and map it to a Messaging Service.

ISV architecture #2

You use subaccounts for logical separation other than for an individual customer. You instead utilize a Messaging Service for each customer. Customers may have multiple Messaging Services attributed to them, each in a different subaccount.

Information architecture

• The parent account contains all the secondary business profiles for your customers.
• Each campaign maps to that secondary business profile and a Messaging Service.
• Refer to the diagram for ISVs using a single, top-level project (no subaccounts).

Registration process

• Review the information required for both US A2P Brand and Campaign use case registration in the Trust Hub.
• Request the required information from your customers. You can find a table with all the information here.
• Utilize the Trust Hub APIs to register secondary business profiles under the parent account.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to enroll each secondary business profile for US A2P.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to create a Campaign use case and map it to a Messaging Service.
• You can create multiple Messaging Services and Campaign use cases for a given secondary business profile to represent different use cases.

ISV architecture #3

You use subaccounts for each of your customers but do not use Messaging Services. You will need to create a Messaging Service within each of your subaccounts and then collect the required information from customers to fill in the Business profile and Campaign use case registration forms that make up US A2P 10DLC onboarding. From there, your architecture will be similar to ISV Architecture #1.

Implementation details

• Use the Messaging Services API to programmatically create Messaging Services in each subaccount
• Use the PhoneNumber subresource API to add phone numbers programmatically into a Messaging Service

ISV architecture #4

You use a Messaging Service for each customer, but do not use subaccounts. You need to collect the required information from customers to fill in the Business profile and Campaign use case registration forms that make up US A2P 10DLC onboarding.

Information architecture

• The parent account contains all the secondary business profiles for your customers.
• Each campaign maps to that secondary business profile and a Messaging Service.
• Customers that have multiple use cases will have multiple Messaging Services and Campaign use cases or mixed-use Campaigns. (See "Mixed/Marketing Use Case" in Support's list of Campaign use case types)
• Refer to the diagram for ISVs using a single, top-level project (no subaccounts).

Registration process

• Review the information required for both US A2P Brand and Campaign use case registration in the Trust Hub.
• Request the required information from your customers. You can find a table with all the information here.
• Utilize the Trust Hub APIs to register secondary business profiles.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to enroll each secondary business profile for US A2P.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to create a Campaign use case and map it to a Messaging Service.

ISV architecture #5

You use Messaging Services as a pooled resource shared amongst customers, but do not use subaccounts. You may need transition to Architecture #4 to provide a logical separation of your customers. Architecture #1 and Architecture #2 are also options, but be aware that message opt-outs are scoped at the account level. Moving to Architecture #1 and Architecture #2 will reset the opt-out that Twilio manages, so ensure that you have an up-to-date opt-out list to avoid sending messages to end-users who have opted out. While it is a big lift to rearrange all customers, you will get significant benefits beyond US A2P 10DLC. First, you will move away from a structure that may appear in violation of Twilio’s Messaging Policy and/or CTIA Guidelines, leading to deliverability challenges. Second, you will get better transparency and reporting on each subaccount or Messaging Service.

Registration process

• Review the information required for both US A2P Brand and Campaign use case registration in the Trust Hub.
• Request the required information from your customers. You can find a table with all the information here.
• Utilize the Messaging Services API to create a new Messaging Service for each Customer’s Use Case
• Utilize the PhoneNumber subresource API to add phone number(s) to a Messaging Service
• Utilize the Trust Hub APIs to register secondary business profiles in each subaccount.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to enroll each secondary business profile for US A2P.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to create a Campaign use case and map it to a Messaging Service.

ISV architecture #6

You do not use subaccounts or Messaging Services. You will need transition to Architecture #4 to provide a logical separation of your customers. Architecture #1 and Architecture #2 are also options, but be aware that message opt-outs are scoped at the account level. Moving to Architecture #1 and Architecture #2 will reset the opt-out that Twilio manages, so ensure you have an up-to-date opt-out list to avoid sending messages to end-users who have opted out. While it is a big lift to rearrange all customers, you will get significant benefits beyond US A2P 10DLC. First, you will move away from a structure that may appear in violation of Twilio’s Messaging Policy and/or CTIA Guidelines, leading to deliverability challenges. Second, you will get better transparency and reporting on each subaccount or messaging service.

Registration process

• Review the information required for both US A2P Brand and Campaign registration in the Trust Hub.
• Request the required information from your customers. You can find a table with all the information here.
• Utilize the Messaging Services API to create a new Messaging Service for each Customer’s Use Case
• Utilize the PhoneNumber subresource API to add phone number(s) to a Messaging Service
• Utilize the Trust Hub APIs to register secondary business profiles in each subaccount.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to enroll each secondary business profile for US A2P.
• Utilize the Messaging A2P APIs to create a Campaign use case and map it to a Messaging Service.

1. Create a Business Profile in Trust Hub

Within the Trust Hub, create your Business Profile. This step validates your business identity. You will only need to do this once.

Note The submission may take up to 72 hours for approval.

You will need to include:

• Under Business Details: the Business name
• Under Business Address: the Business Address and other metadata
• Under Business Information: the Business' identity within the ecosystem, the Business type, ID, industry, website URL, and region information

While registering your business information, you will also provide:

• Under Authorized Representatives: information about Authorized Representative(s) associated with your Business Profile. You may use one point of contact from your own company as the authorized representative across all of your customers for registration purposes.
• Under Notification Settings: an email address for notifications about the status of your Business Profile

Make sure to review your business profile information under Review and Submit before submitting.

2. Register your US A2P brand

Next, register your newly created Business Profile for A2P 10DLC capabilities by creating a US A2P brand. This step will register your business for US A2P10DLC capabilities, as well as calculate your Trust Score. For more information on Trust Scores, see below.

You will need to include:

• Your registered Business Profile (from Step 1)
• Your Company type and stock information (if public)

Once you hit the Register button, Twilio will submit your application for approval. Approval typically happens within a few minutes of submitting.

Registration for Goverment agencies

To successfully register and unlock increased throughput, it is critically important that you register your public sector customers as Government as shown in the ISV API walkthrough in the “Create a US A2P brand” section (step 2.3.4).

Providing accurate information about your government agency customer and creating a brand with the Government company type during brand registration will trigger automatic vetting of your customers’ organization. If confirmed by TCR as a government entity, the above increased throughput will be applied.

ISVs can begin to register government agency customers with all Standard Campaign use cases, and those customers will also be eligible for the Emergency Special Use Case. If your customers will be sending alerts that meet the definition of the Emergency use case, please see our support article on Special Use Cases for more information.

Registration for 527 Political Organizations

Campaign Verify

All 527 Political Organizations including political action committees (PACs) sending political communications on behalf of a Federal, State, or Local political campaign must be verified by Campaign Verify in order to onboard successfully onto 10DLC and unlock the "Political" Special Campaign Use Case with increased messaging limits. Campaign Verify is a secure, non-partisan verification solution for U.S. Political organizations who wish to engage with voters via text messaging.

Listed below are some important pieces of information about Campaign Verify registration:

• There is a one-time $95 fee from Campaign Verify per entity verification per two-year election cycle.
• If a Committee EIN is set during Campaign Verify verification (for state, local, or tribal verification only), this EIN will be cross referenced with the EIN used to register your A2P brand and must match.
• If you have additional questions about Campaign Verify registration, please refer to their FAQ or email support@campaignverify.org

Campaign Verify Tokens

Verification will involve submitting information about your political organization to Campaign Verify, as well as verifying your identity as an authorized person associated with the political organization. Successfully importing a Campaign Verify token will assert your brand status as a verified 527 Political Organization with the carrier ecosystem.

After completing verification with Campaign Verify, you will receive a Campaign Verify Token (CV token) that you will then use during A2P 10DLC registration. A full CV token is composed of 6 pipe (|) delimited fields, for example:

cv|1.0|tcr|10dlc|9957c339-d46f-49b7-a399-2e6d5ebac66d|GQ3NMEjED8xSlaAgRXAXXBUNBT2AgL-LdQuPveFhEyy

Listed below are some important pieces of information about CV tokens:

• CV tokens expire after a period of time and will need to be periodically updated.
• A single Campaign Verify token cannot be imported or used across multiple brands. If a 527 organization is a customer of multiple text messaging providers that will each create an A2P brand on their behalf, a unique CV token will need to be generated and provided to each vendor.

Console Registration

In the TrustHub of the Twilio Console, providing a Campaign Verify token is done as part of the A2P brand registration step. You must select "Nonprofit" as your Company type on this screen. CV tokens will only be accepted for brands with this entity type. Then, select Yes to confirm that you are a registered 527 Political Organization. You will then need to paste your CV token to verify your Organization's identity.

API Registration

Alternatively to using the Console to register, you may use the ISV APIs to register your 527 Political Organization. Please note that you will still need your Campaign Verify Token in order to complete registration and unlock the "Political' special use case.

Important Notes on 527 Political Registration

As you register an A2P brand for your 527 Political organization, please note the following:

• 527 status will not be automatically detected and applied upon brand registration, unlike 501(c)(x) nonprofit and government entity verification. Importing the Campaign Verify token proves 527 status and activates the special A2P benefits for this entity type.
• Updating a Campaign Verify token after brand registration is currently only available via Twilio’s A2P APIs and not in the Twilio Console.
• Once a Campaign Verify token is imported, the A2P brand will qualify for the Political use case and all other standard use cases will be disabled.

Registration for K-12 institutions

ISVs registering with the K-12th grade (K-12 Education) special use case are not required to create secondary brands for each K-12 school. This means that as an ISV, you may register a single K-12 Education campaign under your company’s Primary A2P Brand and associate multiple schools' phone numbers within your own Brand.

For more information on registering a K-12 Education campaign use case, see the "Registering Campaign Use Cases" section of the guide.

Trust Score calculation

When you register your A2P Brand, you will receive a Trust Score that determines your long code messaging throughput to US networks as well as daily message limits to T-Mobile. To help ensure that you receive the highest possible throughput, Twilio provides an additional vetting process.

Automated Secondary Vetting

As an ISV, Twilio offers Automated Secondary Vetting at the parent-account level and will automatically submit your brand for secondary vetting at no cost to you as part of the brand registration process. Secondary vetting is an automated additional review process which can lead to increased throughput and messaging limits. With Automated secondary vetting, you don’t have to take any additional action to benefit from this additional review process upon completing your US A2P brand registration.

For ISVs registering their own customers, there is a one-time fee for secondary vetting for each of your Secondary Brands. See our support article for more information regarding secondary vetting for ISVs.

Submit your business data properly

In order to obtain the best possible Trust Score, you should provide accurate, up-to-date information.

EIN/Tax ID

Please note: All companies creating a Business Profile must provide their Tax ID. For non-US companies, a Tax ID from your respective country is preferred.

For private and public profit companies, the provided EIN and Legal Company Name has to match registration sources. The most common errors are:

• The incorrect name is added, including the name of the messaging provider, or a trade or fictitious name of the company instead of the official legally registered name.
• The number entered in the EIN field is not a valid EIN or home country company ID number.
• The DUNS number has been added into the EIN field.

The following information will help you prepare accurate US EIN and Tax ID information for review:

• For companies with presence in the US, a US EIN is required.
• For non-US companies, the number provided in the EIN/Tax ID field has to match any of the fully automated sources available.
• DUNs is accepted only if no tax number is available, or if you do not wish to register for US A2P messaging and only want to register for Shaken/Stir.
• For Non-Profit and Political organizations, the EIN has to match the Legal Company Name available in the list of Tax-Exempt Organizations or Registered Political Organizations.

Address

For all entity types, a mismatch in one of the following might product a lower Trust Score:

• Address/Street line
• City
• State
• Postal Code/Zip Code
• Country

Please note: Submitting the address of a local branch or any address different from the official registered company address might produce a mismatch with a negative impact on the Trust Score.

Stock Ticker

For Public Profit companies, the stock ticker symbol and the designated stock exchange must match available sources. Many variants of stock exchange names are accommodated (e.g., “NYSE” vs. “New York Stock Exchange”), but abbreviations may vary more widely than anticipated.

Other Factors

The following factors will impact the Trust Score, but cannot be influenced by data submitted:

• Company size: For all companies, points are earned for the detected size of the company based on independent sources of employee count and revenue.
• Years in operation: All companies earn points for their years in operation and domain age.

Updating your A2P Brand

If your A2P brand registration fails, you may edit your brand via the TrustHub UI in the Twilio Console. You will be able to perform edits a maximum of 3 times at no cost. After 3 edit attempts, you will need to reach out to Twilio Support for additional assistance.

If there are errors with your registration, you will see a callout identifying what they are. Take note of the errors as highlighted by arrow 1, and resolve them. Notice that you will see the number of tries (edit attempts) remaining as you update your brand indicated by arrow 2 underneath the "Submit" button.

Be sure to review the "Submit your business data properly" section for information on how to submit the most accurate information for your business.

3. Register your campaign use case(s)

After creating and registering your Business Profile and US A2P brand, it is time to register a campaign use case for sending messages over A2P 10DLC routes.

A campaign represents a use case, such as marketing messages or order confirmations. A specific US A2P brand--like the one you just created in Step 2--may have one or more campaign use case, such as one for marketing notifications and another for order confirmations. However, the registration process is the same for each campaign use case that you create. (For more on campaign use cases, please see our Support FAQ on A2P 10DLC.)

This step may take several minutes to complete. After that, any phone number within the connected Messaging Service will be identified as A2P 10DLC with the associated campaign use case; you should see lower filtering.

For more information on how to add a phone number to your Messaging Service, please read our PhoneNumber Resource API Reference page.

You'll need the following information for the campaign use case creation process:

• Messaging Service associated with the Campaign
• A2P use case type (see full list in Support's List of Campaign Types)
• Use case description
• 2 sample messages (up to 1024 characters long)
• At least one Twilio Phone Number to add to the Messaging Service's Sender Pool

You can purchase a Twilio Phone Number ahead of time by either visiting the Phone Numbers section of the Twilio Console or from the command line with the Twilio CLI:

twilio phone-numbers:buy:local --country-code US --sms-enabled

When you're ready to register a campaign use case, decide whether you want to Create a new Messaging Service or Use an existing Messaging Service. Then click Continue.

As part of the campaign use case registration step, you must link it to a Messaging Service. If you selected Create a Messaging Service on the last page, you wil need to create a Messaging Service with a "Friendly Name" and select what you will be using the Messaging Service for.

Remember: each Messaging Service should map to a single campaign use case.

When you've finished editing your campaign use case, don't forget to hit the Save and Continue button!

Under the Add Senders section, you will want to select the phone numbers to add to your Messaging Service Sender Pool. If you already have available numbers (unattached to other Messaging Services), you can select them under Numbers Available for association.

If you do not have any available numbers, click the link to Buy a new number, which will take you to the Phone Numbers section of the Twilio Console to purchase one. Once you have purchased an SMS-capable number, you can return to the Trust Hub and reload the page.

Under the Set Up Integration section, you will configure how your Messaging Service will integrate with your application and handle inbound messages.

• Defer to sender's webhook (default) will use the HTTP webhook as defined for the given Phone Number ("sender")
• Drop the message will ignore incoming messages
• Send a webhook will send an HTTP webhook request for incoming messages
• Autocreate a Conversation will create new Conversations (Please see Twilio Conversations Autocreation documentation)

This is also where you can set up delivery status callbacks and set the validity period for unsent Messages.

After hitting Save and continue, you'll go to the Register Campaign Use Case screen. Here, you will need to enter:

• The A2P campaign use case
• A description of the campaign use case
• Two sample messages for the campaign use case
• Select whether your messages will include embedded links and/or phone numbers
• Agree to the terms & conditions, as well as the monthly carrier fees associated with your campaign use case.

Don't forget to hit the Register campaign use case button at the end!

Once your Campaign use case registration is approved, you will see an on-screen message indicating that your registration flow is complete.

You can also register additional campaign use cases and view all of your registered US A2P brands.

527 Political Organizations

527 political campaigns, parties, or action committees are required to register their organization with Campaign Verify (CV) and provide a CV token during A2P brand registration before registering campaign use cases. See the "Register Your A2P Brand" section for more details on importing a Campaign Verify token.

A2P brands with a Campaign Verify token successfully imported will be treated as a 527 Political Organization — and receive the increased message limits afforded to these entity types. Once a Campaign Verify token has been imported, the brand will qualify for the "Political" special use case, and all other use cases will be disabled for the brand.

"Political" will be the only campaign use case under which verified 527 organizations will be able register their 10DLC messaging traffic. This is both so political organizations can take advantage of increased messaging limits associated with the Political campaign use case, and all messages from 527s are correctly categorized as political traffic.

K-12 Education Messaging Platforms

Note: Public, Private, Nonprofit, and Government entity types all qualify to register for the K-12 Education Use Case.

K-12 Education is a special use case for messaging platforms that support schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12). The K-12 Education use case includes increased throughput and pricing discounts and also requires additional carrier review (post approval) to ensure that the campaign you are registering meets the criteria defined for the K-12 Education use case. Refer to the Carrier Post-Approval section below to learn more about this additional review process.

A2P 10DLC Messaging Limits

For the K-12 Education use case, throughput will be enforced per phone number. Daily message caps on T-Mobile will depend on your brand score.

Please see this support article for more information on current campaign registration fees and messaging throughput for the K-12 Education Special Use Case.

Carrier Post-Approval

There are 6 Special Campaign Use Cases which require additional carrier review (post-approval) of all attempted registrations immediately following registration:

• Agents, franchise, local branches: brands that have multiple agents, franchises or offices in the same brand vertical, but require individual localized numbers per agent/location/office.
• Proxy (formerly Conversational): peer-to-peer app-based group messaging with proxy/pooled numbers.
• Emergency: notification services designed to support public safety/health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics, and other national or regional emergencies.
• Social: communication between public figures/influencers and their communities.
• Sweepstakes: all gambling and sweepstakes messaging.
• K-12 Education: Messaging platforms for grades K-12 and schools. Note: Post-Secondary institutions should continue to use the "Higher Education" use case.

Post-approval for these special use cases is required before the phone numbers on the campaign are registered for A2P 10DLC and before unlocking associated pricing or throughput benefits available. Carrier review for post-approval campaigns takes an average of 7 days.

Registering Post Approval Campaign Use Case

During the "Register Campaign Use Case" section of the registration process, click the Available A2P campaign use cases dropdown menu. The campaign use cases types that require post-approval are categorized as Requires Carrier Review:

Select your A2P campaign use case and continue with the setup process for your Messaging Service.

Monitoring Status of Post Approval Campaign

After registering a campaign requiring post-approval, your campaign will be updated with a status of "In Progress" while the carriers review it. Your traffic will not be moved to registered A2P routes until approved by carriers. If you are already sending messages using the associated Messaging Service on unregistered SMS routes, this will continue to function as normal in this state.

You will receive an email from Twilio with the results of the carrier review after it is completed. Carrier review takes an average of 7 days.

You will either be approved or rejected by the carriers.

If approved, your messaging traffic will be successfully registered on A2P routes in accordance with the pricing and throughput of the selected campaign type. Your campaign will be marked as "Verified" in the Console.

If rejected, you will have the opportunity to resubmit your campaign with a different use case that will be automatically approved by the carriers. Your campaign status will be marked as "Failed" in the Console.

What’s next?

To learn more about US A2P 10DLC, please read the following resources:

• What is A2P 10DLC? (Support)
• List of Campaign use case Types for A2P 10DLC registration (Support)
• How do I register to use A2P 10DLC messaging? (Support)
• How to send SMS Messages with Messaging Services