10DLC - Brand registration guide

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.

Important update

Since October 17th 2024, a new brand verification process was introduced for all new and existing public profit brands. This new Authentication+ verification process is explained in more details here.

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.
• If you sell your products & services to other businesses, each of your customers (or partners) must be registered within 10DLC, with their own brand & campaigns.
  • Your account must be recognised as either a 10DLC Reseller or a 10DLC Partner
    Please check this 10DLC guide to resellers and partners for details
  • Brands & campaigns representing your customers must be designated as reseller
• Resellers must register a reseller ID and assign it to your reseller campaigns (the campaigns registered under a reseller brand -- i.e. a Brand representing a customer or partner).
• Brands must be genuine: brands must be verified before it can register campaigns. Read our verification requirements article for more information

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

Single vs multiple brands

As a Vonage customer, you can be categorised as either:

A 10DLC Customer

• You provide products & services to individuals (not businesses)
• You only send messages to your own customer base

Since you only need to register your own 10DLC Brands & Campaigns, you do not need to register as a either a 10DLC reseller or partner.

A 10DLC Reseller

• You provide products & services to other businesses (or partners)
• You send messages for your own businesses & for your customers or partners
• Each of your customers are attributed dedicated numbers 
• The messages are usually not templated, but they can be

You need to register as a 10DLC Reseller (a 10DLC Partner option is also available if desired). You should register at least one brand for your own entity (your customer brand). All your customers or partners must be identified with their own reseller brands & campaigns within the 10DLC ecosystem.*

* Some exemptions may apply in specific situations

A 10DLC Partner

• You are a recognised in the 10DLC ecosystem as a Campaign Service Provider (CSP)
• You register directly your 10DLC brands & campaigns on TCR
• All the 10DLC Reseller role requirements apply here too

You need to reach out to your Account Manager and ask to be enabled as a 10DLC Partner. Once approved, you will be able to call our campaign import endpoint.

After registering your campaigns, please elect Vonage as your connectivity partner from TCR's platform. Then, you can call our campaign import endpoint to link the 10DLC campaign to your account (or one of your sub-accounts). The review process will begin automatically.

Note that partner campaigns cannot be updated on Vonage's platform, if the review identifies the need to make changes, we will reject the sharing request. Our review feedback will be included within the event you will receive from TCR.

Important update

You will soon be able to designate brands representing your customers or partners as "reseller brands".

• Please apply for a reseller ID to be able to designate your brands as reseller brands
• Your Reseller ID applications will be reviewed by our teams
  • You can designate new and existing brands as reseller immediately -- Not recommended
    
• Traffic for reseller campaigns will be suspended if the reseller ID application is rejected
  • Please reach out to your account manager or open a new support ticket to request an appeal
• Once your application has been approved, you can designate new & existing brands as reseller

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). In some instances, registering the U.S. legal entity of your brand is better. This is recommended for non-profit organizations, or for situations where your U.S. legal entity has existed for at least a year.

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, Greenpeace U.K., French ministry of defence
• Public profit
  e.g. Apple Inc., The Coca Cola Company
• Non-profit
  e.g. Greenpeace U.S., Alzheimer's society U.S.
• 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
• Only U.S. based entities can register as Non-Profit
• 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.
• Reseller
  Is this a reseller brand? (does the brand represent one of your legal entities or a customer / partner?)
• 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, Tax ID, Business Number (CA), etc.
• An alternate identification number
  Optional: DUNS, GIIN, LEI
  
• 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
• Verification email
  Required for Authentication+ verification (More information)
  Provide the email of an employee or manager of the business being registered

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 (optional)
  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
• An alternate identification number
  Optional: DUNS, GIIN, LEI
• 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.

Important update

Since October 17th 2024, a new brand verification process (with Authentication+) was introduced, requiring all new and existing brands to be verified with a 2FA email verification. More details on this new feature can be found on this article.

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".

* Please note that Public Profit & Sole Proprietor brands have special brand verification requirements.

When your brand is "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 may need to request an external vetting to complete the verification phase and unlock the registration of campaigns.

Note that bypassing a failed brand verification via external vetting is no longer possible for brands required to complete the Authentication+ verification. Currently it applies to all public profit brands.

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)