- Background
- Who Will Get Affected by TCR?
- Why Do You Need to Register?
- What You Are Required to Do Prior to Registration (Updated)
- Preaparing for Registeration ---
- How to Register in The Campaign Registry?
- How Much Does it Cost?
In addition to registering, you should also familiarize yourself with the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Telebroad support team via phone or email if you have additional questions about The Campaign Registry.
Disclaimer: The following article is only provided as a general overview. It may not necessarily include or be up to date with all the related requirements or apply to all situations. It is also not intended as legal advice. We recommend you do additional reading and carefully review the topic on https://www.campaignregistry.com/faq/ where you can download PDF guides, watch video tutorials, and read FAQs.
Background
In a nutshell, The Campaign Registry (TCR) requires companies and organizations to register the ten-digit phone numbers (10DLC) they use for their Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS messaging campaigns. Registration is handled by messaging service providers (like Telebroad) on behalf of their subscribers.
The Campaign Registry was created by the mobile network operators (MNO) following a federal legislation and FCC rules that aim to regulate the use of text messaging, offer texting standards, and make texting more secure and credible in general.
The registry will identify the users of mobile networks and how they use it in their SMS activity in an effort to combat spam and create a better environment for the delivery of legitimate text messages. This will benefit both consumers and businesses by giving mobile operators the ability to better monitor, flag, and deal with unsolicited SMS messaging.
To comply and ensure delivery of your text messages you need to register your SMS campaigns with a Campaign Service Provider, such as Telebroad.
Who is Affected by TCR?
TCR affects any company that uses SMS, regardless of size, in its A2P communication. Companies that send large volumes of outbound SMS, use messaging for marketing, or use Telebroad's API to automate sending SMS messages are more likely to be impacted. But even if this is not the case for you, registering can still help prevent disruptions to your messaging and business activity.
Why Do You Need to Register?
Registering verifies the legitimacy of your business and the SMS messages you are sending. This increases consumers' trust in your brand and messages because it shows your willingness to offer transparency and get your SMS activity pre-verified by qualified third parties.
If your business connects to users and customers with SMS, then failure to register may prevent your messages from being delivered and could also require Telebroad to collect increased costs for message filtering and potential fines (starting at $10 per message) levied by the mobile operators.
Since mobile operators will focus their attention on unregistered numbers, they are more likely to prevent the delivery of unsolicited messages originating from such numbers and could even decide to completely block these numbers.
With TCR tier-based volume (throughput) allowances, registering will permit you to send more messages at a faster frequency than before the implementation of TCR. On the other hand, not registering could get you flagged for sending too many messages, even if you follow all other requirements.
By registering you are also doing your part in creating a better and less wasteful mobile communication environment as a whole, where it is easier to identify and reduce spam.
What You Are Required to Do Prior to Registration
The TCR assumes your company collects names, phone numbers, and other personal information to use in your SMS campaigns and is expecting you to comply with certain requirements and standards to protect consumers and users of your products and services.
Starting November 1st, 2024 Telebroad may not be able to deliver your campaign messages if you are unable to fulfill the TCR requirements that follow next.
A Website for the Brand Associated With the Campaign
The website lets the TCR assess and evaluate your business beyond the details provided on the registration application and establish its legitimacy and background.
Your TCR registration cannot be approved without a website and an opt-in process!
The website needs to provide/have:
- Information about your company: The services or products it offers, and all relevant contact information.
- A legal section with a privacy policy: The policy needs to explain what and how users' information is collected, including information provided voluntarily by users (name, email, phone number) as well as data that is automatically collected by your servers (IP address, user's operating system, access time, etc.)
The privacy policy needs to specify you are safeguarding the information users provide and will not sell or share it with any 3rd parties. Explain if there are any exceptions to this.
The privacy policy should state that the users can always opt out of receiving messages and include the instructions to do so.
Also include your contact details to let users know how to reach you with any questions or requests about any messaging issues. Users should be able to get support information by simply replying with a keyword ("Help") to your messages. - Any terms, conditions, and rates relevant to your campaign and messages users may receive from you.
Opt-in Process
For the approval of your campaign, you need to have an active opt-in process where users perform an action to agree to receive messages from you (an opt-in process where users need to decline receiving messages is not acceptable!)
This process needs to make users aware they are agreeing to receive messages and be clearly explained in both your privacy policy and the web page where the actual opt-in action takes place.
If you have other opt-in methods, like having consumers text you with a keyword("Join"), you also need to explain what the opt-in process entails for them wherever you advertise your campaigns.
The opt-in can be offered as a web form where consumers register for a service, contact you, provide feedback, or request information. Next to the phone number field include an opt-in box that, when checked, indicates the consumer is agreeing to receive messages from you.
Opt-out Process
With the same field or form, include opt-out details for when the consumer wishes to stop receiving your messages.
Your opt-out process needs to be easy and hassle-free, commonly done by consumers replying "STOP" to one of your messages. Send consumers one confirmation message about opting out and do not send any other messages until they opt in again.
Your website and opt-in/opt-out process must be fully functional as they will be tested by the TCR. Make sure your web form can be submitted with the opt-in box unchecked (to give consumers the choice in the matter) and that confirmations are properly delivered by your system.
Preaparing for Registeration
Registration should be rather straightforward and quick for most of our users once the required information is gathered.
In the registration process, you will see the word brand as a reference to a business, organization, or any other entity that sends out A2P messages to consumers. Basically, "Brand" is your company.
The registration has three sections: basic Brand information, messaging usage details, and expected volume/frequency.
1. Basic Brand Information
Here you need to provide information that legally identifies your company or brand such as:
- The legal name of your company, organization, or brand.
You must provide exactly the same name you use when filing taxes or dealing with federal/state authorities! - The type of business entity.
- Full address, email, and other contact information.
- Tax Number/ID/EIN.
- Official website.
- Company size.
2. Messaging Usage Details
Here you will need to describe the use case, message content, and features of your messages to illustrate how you use 10DCL to message people. You also need to provide sample messages relating to the campaign.
A use case describes the purpose of SMS communication like marketing, delivery notifications, polling, customer care, account authentication or registration, security notices, etc. Most campaigns usually have several use cases.
The content and features indicate if your messages support certain functions, requirements, or procedures. This can include collecting opt-in confirmation, offering opt-out information, offering a support option, including a phone number or a link, etc.
For the sample messages try to provide a few of the most common scenarios. Do not include special formatting or variables, but rather an example of the text itself as a consumer sees it.
3. Expected Volume/Frequency
The MNOs need to know your messaging needs and patterns —an estimate of the volume and frequency of your messaging activity— to determine their validity and avoid potential blocking because of seemingly excessive use.
You will want to consider higher messaging volume/frequency to be on the safe side, but at the same time things have to make sense. It is acceptable to have a higher volume/frequency for marketing but less so for security notifications.
To simplify things we offer two options:
- Basic Messaging: This applies to you if you anticipate sending fewer than 1000 messages per day with a frequency of less than 1 message per second. Most Telebroad customers will find basic messaging sufficient for their messaging needs.
- Advanced Messaging: This is intended for our users who require higher frequency/scope of messaging for marketing purposes or use our APIs to automate and send messages at a higher rate.
How to Register in The Campaign Registry?
Registration will be handled by Teleboad. We will reach out to each account administrator separately by email with a short form to obtain the company and campaign information detailed in the previous section.
The TCR classifies campaigns as standard or special. Once we process your information and submit it standard campaigns are usually approved immediately. Special campaigns will take a few days to receive approval depending on the MNO or the reviewing third-party handling times.
Approval is not guaranteed. If you get rejected you will need to adjust your application with consideration to the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices.
If you get approved, you will receive a trust score that will determine the allowed volume/frequency you can use for each use case in your campaign.
You should be aware that for some campaigns the registration can expire, which will require you to renew or resubmit it with any associated fees.
How Much Does it Cost?
Registering involves a monthly fee and a per-message surcharge.
The actual cost depends on your messaging needs. Telebroad will add the monthly registration fee to your regular bill. For most of our users, this will not exceed $10 per brand.
For the time being, we will cover the per-message cost, so other than the monthly fee there will be no other expense for registering.
Please note that this is provisional and that pricing is not fully under our control. Fees may increase in the future subject to the policies and costs decided upon by the MNOs and related third parties.
Recovery Fee
If your registration is rejected due to wrong or missing information on the application or on your website or due to other circumstances beyond Telebroad's control, a $100 recovery fee will be charged for resubmitting the application.
Our team will work with you to correct the application and avoid additional rejections, however we are unable to provide any time frame or guarantees for approval.