Background information

Under the new A2P 10DLC regulation, anyone using an A2P (Application to Person) mechanism to send messages (SMS or MMS) is required to go through a registration process via the campaign registry (TCR). The registration process comprises of 4 phases:

1. Creation of a brand for your business
2. Going through verification & vetting to be assigned a trust score
3. Creation of the appropriate campaigns
4. Linking LVNs (Long Virtual Numbers) to the relevant campaigns

This guide is focusing on the first phase, the creation of a brand, using our Vonage API dashboard.

Key points:

• Sending unregistered traffic may result in penalties as well as traffic block from the carriers. So it is imperative to register your brands & campaigns as early as possible
• You cannot create campaigns and send 10DLC traffic if your brand is not vetted (exception for Low Volume mixed and political campaigns)
• We recommend to submit vetting requests once the brand is verified as it can impact vetting approval
• If your brand cannot be verified and you know the information to be correct, you need to proceed to a vetting

Common mistakes

• Using a different business name that the one listed on the official records
  Please use the legal name, as it appears on your tax records
• Typing the wrong information in the "Tax Number / ID / EIN" area in the form
  Please only use a valid EIN or home country company ID number
• Providing a DUNS number instead of an EIN for US-based companies
• Providing an address that does not correspond to the information on the official records
• Registering as a government entity while not being listed as an official government entity
• Creating campaigns before brand verification (or vetting) is successful may impact throughput

Non US-based companies

The Campaign Registry uses information collected from different official registries in order to verify the brands. Unfortunately, some countries do not offer sufficient technological capabilities currently. This means the TCR cannot automatically verify brands in those countries and an external vetting may be required. For that reason, creating a campaign requires a standard vetting. The exceptions are listed below:

• You only need Low Volume Mixed campaigns
• For political campaign, brands must be created as "Non-Profit" and you may be required to request a political vetting
• Sole Proprietors cannot request any type of vetting

The following countries are part of TCR's "optimised approval list". This means that companies originating from those countries can benefit from automated VAT identification. For any other country, TCR recommends using the primary corporation registration number or tax ID number for the country, and vetting will likely be required.

How to Format Your Tax ID

If you have registered a private or public profit company, the EIN provided and the legal company name must match the official records that the TCR will use to verify the information.

Ensure the following:

• A valid Tax ID must be provided.
  
  • For US-based brands: The EIN, legal name and address are matching the registered records at the state and federal levels
  • For Non-Profit brands: The EIN must be tax-exempt, as confirmed by the IRS
  • For Governmental brands: The EIN must match a government entity
  • For international brands: Use the brand's home country information (Business number, VAT number or DUNS) alongside the address listed on the home country's official records

Canadian companies:

Enter your Provincial Corporation Number as your Tax ID/EIN:

• Alberta corporation number
• Ontario corporation number (enter only the numbers after the first two leading zeros)
• British Columbia corporation number (make sure the 'BC' prefix is part of the number)
• Saskatchewan corporation number
• Nova Scotia corporation number
• Quebec corporation number
• Manitoba corporation number

If The Campaign Registry is not allowing you to register with these IDs, you may alternatively use your federally-issued Canadian corporation number. Do not use your business number or federal tax ID number.

The address you enter should also match the address you registered with Corporations Canada.

International Companies:

Use the numeric portion of your VAT ID. If you don't have a VAT ID, provide the primary corporation registration number or tax ID for your country. Here are some examples of correct Tax numbers:

Business Address

For all entity types, make sure that the following address elements match your company’s official registration information:

• Address/Street line
• City
• State
• Postal Code/Zip Code
• Country

Submitting the address of a local branch or any address different from the officially registered company address might cause issues at the brand verification process.

Stock Exchanges

For public profit companies, the stock ticker symbol and the designated stock exchange must match available sources. Available stock ticker values are as follows:

More information around vetting

• A standard vetting is now required to create any campaign except Low Volume mixed and Sole Proprietor campaign use cases
• For Political campaigns, a political vetting may be required
• Standard vets can be requested from our Vonage API Dashboard, it costs 40$ per application
  (non-refundable)
• Political vets can be imported from Campaign Verify (more coming soon)
• Vets can be imported if you requested it directly via the vetting agency or if your previous supplier shared the vetting information with you (vetting ID, Token if applicable)
• If you disagree with the vetting score applied, please open a support ticket providing official documentation
• There is a separate process to request higher throughputs via T-Mobile
• Political vetting can come at a different cost, more information on this will be available later

Sole Proprietor brands

If you want more information about the creation of Sole Proprietor brands, please check this article:

10DLC - Update - Sole Proprietor v2 (November 3rd, 2022)

Additional Information

The country code to use is that of the ISO standard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2. Please note that US territories such as Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands have their own country code (PR and VI respectively).