Quick access:

• Before you begin
• Brand overview
• Step by step guides
• What happens next?
• Additional information

This guide outlines how to register a 10DLC brand. Please check our 10DLC guide of guides which outlines the complete on-boarding journey, and note that registering a brand involves some costs, as outlined in our 10DLC pricing page.

Before you begin

Once you understand the context of 10DLC and the various options offered to you, you need to figure out how to best implement 10DLC for your business. We offer services to a wide range of customers. Some use our APIs to enable communication capabilities within applications they sell to direct users (B2C), while some provide services to other businesses (B2B or B2B2C). Finally, some customers use our APIs without adding brand value on top, simply passing through their traffic (Aggregators).

Brand requirements

Under 10DLC, there are a few requirements relative to what brands represent:

• All Application to Person (A2P) messages sent to U.S. subscribers must originate from a phone number that can be traced back to a single legal entity. This includes Toll-Free Numbers (TFN) and Short Codes (SC). Shared short codes are no longer allowed.
• A 10DLC brand can only represent a single legal entity.
• Resellers must register a reseller ID and assign it to the campaigns they register on behalf of other legal entities.
• Brands must be genuine, verification requirements apply when registering 10DLC campaigns.

For more details on the brands requirements, please check this article.

Single vs multiple brands

If your product sends messages to your customers directly (B2C), you only need to register your brands (legal entities). However, if you sell a product / application that enables your customers to message their customers (B2B or B2B2C), you will need to register your own brands, as well as separate brands and campaigns for each of your customers representing a separate legal entity. In this scenario, you are also required to register as a reseller, and need to assign your reseller ID to all the campaigns registered on behalf of your customers.

Similarly, if you are an aggregator, you will need to register separate brands and campaigns for each of the legal entities you provide services to. Note that you can either register as a reseller or as a Campaign Service Provider (CSP).

Brand management

You can manage the 10DLC brands and campaigns you register in two ways within Vonage:

• A single account (API key) containing and managing all the brands, campaigns and numbers
• A parent account and multiple children accounts to contain and manage your different brands or the brands of your different customers

Brand sharing

When using several accounts (API keys), you may want to allow several accounts to register campaigns and manage the numbers for those campaigns. To request a 10DLC brand to be shared, please reach out to your account manager or open a support request.

Limitations relative to shared brands:

• The account (API key) registering a brand or campaign is known as the primary account
• Only the brand's primary account can manage that brand (update details, request external vets)
• Only the campaign's primary account can consult and manage that campaign, this includes:
  • Updating or cancelling the campaign
  • Linking or unlinking numbers to the campaign
  • Sending traffic for that campaign

Brand overview

When registering your brand, you will need to provide the information as it appears in the official records for your legal entity, in the country of registration of that entity. For multinational entities, we recommend registering your brand's headquarters entity (providing the home country information).

Brand entity type

The first thing to identify is your brand's entity type. Under 10DLC, there are five (5) possible categories:

• Private profit
  e.g. Your independent coffee shop down the road
• Public profit
  e.g. Apple Inc., The Coca Cola Company 
• Non-profit
  e.g. Greenpeace, Alzheimer's society, the french Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Sole proprietor
  e.g. Your favorite hairdresser, an independent medical practitioner
• Government
  e.g. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)

Answering a few questions can help you identify the correct entity type for your 10DLC brand. We made this diagram to help you figure it out easily:

Note:

• Only U.S. and Canada based sole proprietors can register to 10DLC
• Contrary to the legal definition of sole proprietor entities, only brands without an EIN number or tax ID can register as sole proprietors brands under 10DLC

Brand details

You are required to provide the following information relative to your legal entity:

• Your Vonage account (public API only)
  Provide the API key of your account. This will be the primary account for your brand.
• Legal name
  The official legal name of the entity
• Doing Business As (DBA) names (optional)
  If applicable, all the other known trade names for your entity
• An identification number
  EIN, DUNS, Canadian corporation number, Tax ID, GIIN, LEI, etc.
• An alternate identification number (optional)
  
• A link to your website (optional)
• Your vertical type
  Your activity sector / segment
• Your country of registration
  We recommend to provide the information of the home country of your entity
• Your headquarter's physical address
  Make sure to provide the information as it appears in the official records
• Contact details (email address and phone number)
  Provide your support contact information

Publicly traded companies also require:

• The stock exchange where your entity is listed
• Your stock symbol

Sole Proprietor brands require a slightly different set of information:

• Your Vonage account (public API only)
  Provide the API key of your account. This will be the primary account for your brand.
• Legal name
  The official legal name of the entity
• Doing Business As (DBA) names (optional)
  If applicable, all the other known trade names for your entity
• First & last name
  First and last name of the owner of the entity
• A link to your website (optional)
• Your vertical type
  Your activity sector / segment
• Your country of registration
  Must be either the U.S.A or Canada
• Your business's physical address
  A limited number of sole proprietor brands can be registered at this address
• Contact details (email address and phone number)
  A limited number of sole proprietor brands can be registered using those details
• A mobile phone number
  The number must be a U.S. or Canadian active number

Brand identification number

When registering a brand other than a sole proprietor, you must provide an identification number that will be used to verify the brand is genuine.

There are several types of identification numbers accepted, depending on the country of registration of your entity. Please check this page for a breakdown of different countries and the respective identification numbers to use.

Brand verification requirements

Registering a brand in itself will not allow you to send messages. You need to register 10DLC campaigns under that brand, and link numbers to that campaign to allow 10DLC registered traffic to be sent. But in order to register a campaign, the brand must be verified to be genuine.

There are several levels of brand verification possible, unlocking more campaign use cases for your brand. The entity type and some other attributes of your brand will also condition the ability of your brand to register a campaign. The brand identity status will usually be the first element to unlock campaign registration. Any brand that wants to register a campaign will require either a "verified" or "vetted verified" status. Please check our brand verification requirements page for more details.

Step by step guides

Vonage dashboard

Register your brand via our dashboard.

API endpoints

Register your brand via the API.

What happens next?

Congratulations! You have now registered a new 10DLC brand. The next step in your on-boarding journey will be to ensure your brand is properly verified. Your brand will now go through the basic verification process to assign the brand identity status from "pending" to either "verified" or "unverified".

If "verified", you can proceed to register your first campaign. Otherwise, you may need to double check that all the information provided at the registration is correct, and as they appear in the official records of your home country. For more information on failed verification, check this page.

If the brand still cannot be "verified", you will need to request an external vetting to complete the verification phase and unlock the registration of campaigns.

We recommend our customers request an external vetting for their brands in order to unlock most campaign use cases, as well as being assigned a vetting score. This vetting score will be used by the carriers to allow the highest throughput possible for your brand and campaigns.

Back to Guide of guides

Additional information

• The country code to use is that of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard (n.b. U.S. territories use separate codes)
• The phone numbers are to be formatted following the e.164 international standard
• Sole proprietor brands are more likely to be under additional scrutiny from our carriers & partners
• We reserve the rights to suspend or terminate brands and campaigns violating 10DLC requirements or CTIA guidelines, often at the request of the carriers & The Campaign Registry (TCR)