US SMS Features and Restrictions
Important Notice to Vonage Customers Using US Shared Short Codes
T-Mobile and AT&T’s new Code of Conduct prohibits the use of shared originators, therefore, Shared Short codes are not an acceptable format for A2P messaging.
Vonage customers using a Shared Short Code, must migrate SMS traffic to either a 10DLC, Toll Free SMS Number, or Dedicated Short Code before March 1, 2022.
Vonage customers using our Shared Short Code API must migrate to either our SMS API or Verify API.
Customers using Dedicated Short Codes are not affected by these changes within the scope of 10DLC.
Overview
The US has very specific messaging restrictions and Vonage as a trusted partner can ensure message delivery to the numerous networks. We have extremely high-quality, direct connections in order to facilitate delivery of your SMS to the US.
Sender ID
All SMS sent to the US must originate from either a US pre-approved long number, registered toll-free, 10 DLC, or short code that is associated with your Vonage account. Alpha Sender IDs are not supported.
Definitions
P2P: P2P (person-to-person) traffic may be sent using a Vonage US (or Canadian) long virtual number. If you do not already own one, long virtual numbers are available through your Vonage API account dashboard.
A2P: A2P (application-to-person) traffic, such as bulk notifications, should be sent to the US via Dedicated Short Code, Toll-Free Number, and 10DLC. If none of our pre-approved Short Code use-cases are appropriate, we can assist you in the application process for a dedicated Short Code.
Specific Features and Restrictions for Each Type of Number
- US LVN Long Virtual Number - Local Area Code Numbers
- US 10 DLC 10 Digit Long Code
- US Short Codes 5-6 digit numbers used only for SMS & MMS
- US Toll-Free Numbers
Restrictions:
- SHAFT: Sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco content is strictly prohibited on all US number originators. Support of Programs that provide prohibited content is subject to permanent expiration of the entire Short Code, Long Virtual Number or Toll-Free Number or the specific Program. Vaping, marijuana, cannabis, or content relating to dispensaries falls under this prohibited content.
- Programs must operate according to all applicable federal and state laws and regulations. This is the only Sev 0 violation.
- These programs are also banned on all carriers:
- Illegal Substances (Cannabis)
- Fraud, Spam, and Phishing
- Deceptive Marketing
- Financial offerings, loan origination* and matching including:
- Payday loans
- Short-term loans
- Auto loans
- Mortgage loans
- Student loans
- Debt forgiveness, consolidation or reduction
- Investment Opportunities
- Affiliate lead or commission generation
- Credit repair programs
- Tax relief programs
- Work from home programs
- Get rich quick programs
For more information, please check the CTIA Guidelines.
US SMS Delivery Options
|
US SMS Sending Options |
Long Code |
Dedicated Short Code |
Toll-Free SMS |
10 DLC |
|
Example |
12013511943 |
12345 |
1-888-555-5555 |
12013511943 |
|
Daily Send Limit |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A** |
|
|
Throughput Limit |
1 SMS/sec./Number |
Up to 30 mps |
Up to 30 mps |
|
|
Canadian Reach |
Yes |
No (User must purchase a Canadian Short Code) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
2-Way SMS Support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Suggested Use Case |
Requires Carriers Exemption for P2P |
Marketing, High Volume School/Flight/ Appt reminders |
Customer Service, Alert Notifications, etc. |
2FA, Notifications, Customer Care, Alerts, Higher Education, Low Volume Mixed, Marketing, Polling and Voting, Public Service Announcement, ***Special Use Cases |
|
Price Per Number/Month |
||||
|
Price Per Outbound Message |
||||
|
Price Per Inbound Message |
||||
|
Set Up Time |
Available immediately Log in to your Vonage account to get started. |
8-12 Weeks Contact your Sales representative to get started. |
Vonage Pre-Approved: Available Immediately. User Owned: 3-7 business days. |
Dependent on Use Case |
|
Carrier Delivery Receipts (Tier 1 Carriers*) |
No - network only |
Yes |
Yes |
No - network only |
|
Unicode |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Concatenated |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Regulatory |
Immediate code shutdown for marketing messages. Subject to carrier filtering. |
CTIA and TCPA Guidelines |
CTIA and TCPA Guidelines |
CTIA and TCPA Guidelines |
*Tier 1 Carriers include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint
**Unverified traffic will be blocked from Oct. 1st, 2022. See information for Verified Toll-Free.
*** Use Cases such as Charity, Conversational Messaging, Emergency, Sweepstakes, Political, Social, Large Communications Service Providers Trial. More information at What A2P 10 DLC campaign use cases are approved in the US?
Additional Information
For more information, see the following articles:
Comments
23 comments
I didn't get the "Numeric sender only". What does it mean?
Also, what is considered a long SMS? How many characters?
Long SMS is anything over 160 characters. If sending over 160 characters content to US we will be unable to form a concatenated message but for other destinations this should be fully supported. Read more about concatenated messages here.
Using REST API, you do not need to do anything on your side with messages longer than 160 characters as we will split accordingly in 153 pieces and add the corresponding UDH to form the concatenation.
I assume the "Long Virtual Number" is the "from" number we buy in the numbers tab?
I can easily foresee a time when we exceed sending 500 messages a day in the USA. What should we do? Have multiple from numbers and do internal tracking to make sure we aren't sending too many messages from each one?
Yes, exactly. If you foresee exceeding the 500 messages per/day/number, you can purchase more numbers and alternate those as SenderID on your messages.
I hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Alberto
Thanks for the swift reply Alberto.
Are vCards supported in the US?
"Maximum of 500 messages per day and per Long Virtual Number. If this is exceeded Number will be blocked and will no work."
How do we define the day? within 24 hours or a natural day? if the latter, which timezone are we in?
"Maximum of 500 messages per day and per Long Virtual Number. If this is exceeded Number will be blocked and will no work."
How do we define the day? within 24 hours or a natural day? if the latter, which timezone are we in?
Within 24 hours. However, we would recommend to keep the maximum number of messages sent using a single Long Virtual Number as SenderID way below the 500 messages within 24 hours period.
Our recommendation is to simulate what real Person to Person messaging limitations might be, so 200 messages per day and per Long Virtual Number would be our suggestion. You can purchase a pool of US Long Virtual Numbers and round robin those as SenderID for your messages to US, which would help in achieving higher than 1 SMS per second throughput and also allow to send more messages per day not having your LVNs blocked.
Thank you so much for your swift answer, Alberto.
Another question if it's not too much. Since we are increasingly having a huge growth for our users base. So the demand of sending verification messages by using SMS has reached a certain scale. Will there be a way that we apply for a unique SenderID that specially designated for the US & Canada market that does not the 500 messages limit?
If there is a way, it would be super helpful.
Unfortunately the mentioned restriction is directly imposed by US Carriers and there is no much we can do about it. As previously mentioned, the only work-around for this limitation is to alternate different senderIDs. You can check from our pool of available numbers and select numbers from different area codes which might help in creating some logic on your side to enable users from different areas in US to reply to a local number instead of having a unique Sender and reply number.
Alberto, it would be great if Nexmo could abstract this away for us; i.e. couldn't you keep a large block of numbers & rotate between, so the whole thing would become transparent to us as long as we don't want to recieve return messages?
@Alberto,
Hi, great thread very informative
Im new at this so please be gentle.
New numbers are expensive, can we just keep the one LVN and borrow some of your available senderIDs?
If i have 5000 texts to make it will take me 10 days, and thats if i make 500 a day(which you suggest not to make).
If i want to only send during the week this will take me 2 weeks.
if i buy 10 numbers id be able to make them in one day but the cost now is more then using a service that doesnt limit texts per day.
Is there a way to set it up to auto rotate the long numbers in your system?? Say have (5) numbers and have every message sent on my account rotate through the list?? What about short codes? Do you offer short codes and how many messages can be sent through these per day??
if i only have a US long virtual number,could you use this LVN as sender send sms to a CA mobile?
Yes, you can use US LVN as SenderID for your messages to Canada
Does no binary messages mean no WAP Push? It seems that WAP push is not, in fact, working in the U.S.
WAP push is most likely not widely support by all US Carriers, as it happens with concatenated and binary messages. Please bare in mind that there is also some handsets unable to receive WAP push messages.
can I use DID purchased from a different carrier, or I have to use only DID's from nexom
If for Canadian and US phone numbers, the "from" field is mandatory, are we unable to test/evaluate the service without paying for a virtual number first?
I purchased a virtual number and and I am attempting to send to a US number. The message states its a succes, but I am yet to receive a single successful SMS. Thoughts?
Me i have the same issue as Vilash, i receive the message sent on my Canadian phone number, but on the US number i just receive the status as sent successful and the message itself never reach my phone. Any suggestions about this issues or a way to debug it somehow ?
I had the same issue as Vilash - resolved by re-wording the message, seems certain content is blocked especially if it seems automated.
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