All purchased SMS and MMS enabled Toll-Free numbers should be "verified" to ensure message reliability. 

To request verification of a Toll-Free number if you have an email account provided by Gmail, please complete and submit this Google form, which allows you to upload a file to review your request’s opt-in requirement.

Otherwise, please use this Google form, which asks you to provide a hyper-link to a file we can download or browse to review your request’s opt-in requirement.

If you have 10 or more toll-free numbers, download the Bulk Verification Sheet and email it to verified.toll.free@vonage.com.

After your request has been processed by Vonage, you will be contacted at the provided email address with a status update.

Purpose

Verification of Toll-Free numbers in the US and Canada is required by the wireless carriers (operators).  A business or organization that wants to send and receive SMS and MMS messages over a Toll-Free number needs to have their number "verified". 

Verification is a lightweight on-boarding process that allows customers to privately submit their users’ business information and messaging use case in order to be approved to route mobile messages over the nationwide wireless networks.

What Does Verified and Unverified Mean?

A Verified Toll-Free number means that the message content has been reviewed and does not fall under the Disallowed Content Policy.  Also, it means the number does not send Spam (unsolicited messages) to users and the message sender’s traffic type is known, documented and the number is only associated with the company submitted on the verification request.

An Unverified Toll-Free number has not successfully completed the verification process.  Unverified Toll-Free number messages may be blocked which leads to reliability risk.

Unverified Toll-Free Numbers

It is recommended to verify all Toll-Free numbers regardless of messaging traffic volume.  

• All numbers should be verified for best traffic deliverability, as unverified traffic is subject to a higher level of filtering scrutiny.

Effective October 1 2022, all unverified Toll-Free numbers have been subject to message blocking. 

• If you currently route messages on an unverified Toll-Free number, you should verify your number to ensure messages are not limited, or blocked. 

Canada - Only Verified Toll-Free numbers will be able to route messaging traffic to Canada.  

• If an unverified Toll-Free number sends a message to terminate on a Canadian carrier, it will be blocked.

US - Unverified Toll-Free numbers may route messaging traffic to the US, but under volume threshold limits.

• A SMS text message (one segment up to 160-characters) and a MMS image/clip count as one message.

• Unverified number messages exceeding these limits will be blocked and not delivered, whichever comes sooner.
• Daily Limit:         2,000 messages per day.  A day resets at 12:00 AM Pacific.
• Weekly Limit:   12,000 messages per week.  A week resets on Sunday at 12:00 AM Pacific.
• Monthly Limit: 25,000 messages per month.  A month refers to a calendar month.
• All unverified number messages, regardless of being successfully sent or not, will count toward the daily, weekly and monthly volume limits if they are processed through the network.
• If you send 25,000 messages on the first day of the month, the first 2,000 are delivered, the remaining 23,000 will be blocked and you have met your monthly maximum.
• Message thresholds are subject to change.

Verification Process Overview

1. A customer submits a verification request form to Vonage.

2. Vonage reviews the request to pre-approve and submit for verification.

• Vonage may contact you at the provided email address to request further details to complete the request form. 

3. After Vonage submits a request to the carriers to review, the number is temporarily (or provisionally) verified immediately.

• Each temporarily verified number is immediately activated to send and receive mobile messages.

4. You will be contacted by email with a status update indicating the number is temporarily verified and you can route messages.

• Expected provisional activation timing takes around a month now. 

5. You will receive another email status update indicating whether verification is approved, or not approved.

• Expected verification timing is about a month now. 
• If verification is not approved, the number will no longer be able to route messages.

Who Can Request a Toll-Free Number to be Verified

A business or organization that wants to send and receive mobile messaging traffic must first purchase a Toll-Free number.

Then, the number must successfully complete the Toll-Free verification process. 

• The verification form consists of standard business information and a short description of the messaging program.
• Each Toll-Free number must be verified for the company (brand) who wishes to route message content over that number.  Example, if Company X is sending messages on behalf of Brand Y, then Brand Y is the company who will need to be verified.
• One toll-free number for one company (brand).  If a company wishes to activate more than one number, you must submit a 'valid business reason' to verify up to five numbers.  Example, two numbers needed for staging vs. production, or 3 numbers needed for three sales regions.
• Opt-in end-user consent to receive messages from the sender is required before a user receives the first message.  A screenshot, or hyper-link to a URL to visually show opt-in user consent disclosure must be provided to be verified.  Opt-in may not be obscured within a Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.
• Numbers are verified simultaneously for SMS text messaging and MMS messaging (images, audio and video clips).  If a number is already verified for SMS, no further action is required to add MMS assuming the submitted use case has not significantly changed. 
• Numbers are verified simultaneously for US and Canada nationwide messaging coverage.  SMS is available across both countries, while MMS is available in the US and is coming soon to Canada.
• Toll-Free numbers follow similar program guidelines to the CTIA and CWTA messaging handbooks for common short codes.

Service Benefits

Interactively connect with customers/members/employees/systems both effectively and efficiently.

Toll-Free numbers enable fast, reliable, nationwide, multi-carrier mobile message delivery over the Vonage Network.

Messages received on mobile handsets are sent from a Toll-Free number (not from a short code, or 10-digit local area code).

Each verified Toll-Free number comes with up to 30 SMS and 20 MMS messages per second throughput.  With a valid business need, throughput may be increased by contacting your account manager, or customer support.  Example message volume:

SMS messages are routed 160-characters at a time.  Example, a 300-character message would be concatenated and arrive as two segments on the recipient's handset (first segment 160, second segment 140-characters).  The sender is billed two increments.

MMS messages route images (jpg, jpeg, png, gif), audio clips (mp3 recommended) and video clips (mp4 recommended for best device and network support).  Up to 750Kb maximum file size per message.

Best Practice Guidelines

All campaigns in the US and Canada should provide the program name or brand name in the message header for every message that is sent to a mobile handset for recognition and consistency purposes.

• Opt-In, Consent
  The message sender must obtain explicit recipient opt-in consent for messages sent to a 10-digit number.  Example opt-in disclosure should contain, underneath where the user enters their number to sign-up to receive messages, something like the first and last lines below at a minimum.  A hyper-link to a URL or screenshot is required for verification.

• Opt-Out, No Consent
  The end-user can revoke consent at any time.  Opt-out requests must be honored, wherein the end-user sends a message from their mobile device with the word “STOP”.  A STOP request blocks all subsequent text message exchanges between an individual mobile number and a text-enabled Toll-Free number. 
• Disallowed Sending Practices
  If a message sender is observed performing any of the disallowed sending practices (continuing to send to opt-out customer; opt-out avoidance; or any type of multiple content providers sending from a single number) then a review may be performed of the business and number.  The review may result in the suspension of sending rights for a provisioned phone number.
• Disallowed Content Policy
  All Toll-Free number traffic should adhere to the CTIA guidelines. For more information please see the CTIA Handbook.  Specific content is prohibited from being routed over the Verified Toll-Free messaging network.  Content filtering includes, but is not limited to, gambling, vaping, illegal drugs and SHAFT (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco).
• Restricted Campaign Types
  The following content categories have been identified as potentially harmful or deceitful to the end-user and will not be supported on the Verified Toll-Free messaging network.  These categories are subject to change and traffic in other categories that are not listed may also be blocked without notice.  Message senders are expected to enforce restrictions on their systems to prevent messages containing the content types described below.  If messages are sent into the network containing disallowed content, we reserve the right to place restrictions on the number and block these messages.

• • High-Risk Financial Services • Payday Loans • Short Term-High Interest Loans • Auto Loans • Mortgage Loans • Student Loans • Debt Collection • Affiliate Lead or Commission Generation • Gambling/Sweepstakes • Tax Relief Programs • Stock Alerts • Cryptocurrency 
  • Get Rich Quick Schemes • Deceptive Work from Home Programs • Risk Investment Opportunities • Multi-Level Marketing 
  • 3rd Party • Debt Collection or Consolidation • Debt Reduction • Debt Forgiveness • Credit Repair Programs • Lead Generation
  • Controlled Substances • Tobacco • Vaping • Illegal Drugs • Cannabis/CBD
  • SHAFT • Sex, Hate Speech, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco • Profanity
  • Scams • Phishing • Fraud • Spam • Deceptive Marketing