Incoming Numbers – All you need to know!

When it comes to messaging your contacts, you’ll need to comply with the various rules and regulations that are relevant to the country you’re based in and sending to. These rules are put in place to help reduce inappropriate messaging (fraudulent or smishing messages, and ultimately spam).

In the US and Canada, the regulations require that a registered (or verified) number be used to send messages to any mobile number. How do they do this?

The Campaign Registry

The Campaign Registry (TCR) was launched in late 2020 and was created to validate businesses and their messaging campaigns in order to protect consumers (or mobile phone users) from scammers and also to reduce spam.

What this means is a regulated messaging environment where real businesses ask permission before they can send text message communications to their own customers, and customers are in control of who they give their contact details to. These same customers also understand that when they give their contact details out, they will only be communicated with as and when has been specified during the contact details collection process.

TCR will ultimately approve or decline your messaging campaigns. The mobile networks have very strict rules on what kind of SMS messages they can and will deliver to their mobile users. If the information shared with TCR is inaccurate and campaigns are sent that do not align with the application submitted, the SMS traffic will be blocked and you’d need to re-apply for a new 10DLC.

If you have not registered your brand and SMS campaign with TCR, your messages will likely fail as all commercial SMS traffic needs to be pre-approved by TCR and the relevant mobile networks.

Where we come in:

As an A2P messaging provider, we adhere to a code of conduct and request that our customers do the same. And as part of this, we have partnered with various vendors and TCR to deliver your messages reliably and timeously. To do this, we need your help.

What does this mean?

It means that when you sign up with BulkSMS, and you indicate that you are based in or sending to North America, we will automatically guide you through the application process for an incoming number. For more information on the timelines and process, visit our getting started page.

Now you know why you need an incoming number…. If you’re looking for help on your 10DLC application, look no further. We need quite a bit of information from you, and if the application is inaccurate, or incomplete leading to a “decline” from the TCR, that takes up time and effort on both sides – and we want to do things properly the first time. Ok, so here’s what we’ll need for your application, and we’ll give you some tips to get your number up and running asap!

What we need:

The basics

We’ll need both your company name and brand name. Your brand name is the name you’re doing business as or trading as, while your company name is the name your company is registered under (i.e. the name of the legal entity). If this is the same thing, that’s great. If it isn’t we need both your registered company name and your brand name.
Your relevant business numbers (EIN, Tax ID or Business Number). This needs to tie back to your registered company name. If you are not in the United States or Canada, you’ll need to give us your legal entity ID (LEI) or company registration number and VAT ID, whichever is applicable. See table below for more information.
We need to know the company type, for example, is this a publicly traded company, a private company or a non-profit.
Your brand name needs to be consistent with your website address (website URL), and the contact details of the company need to be the same as on your website.
We’ll need a description of the messaging campaigns you’ll be sending out (we call this your use case). In other words, why are you sending your messages out, what purpose do they serve. Is it to help your customers access your platform, are they being sent out to encourage your customers to buy your products, or are they being sent to confirm an appointment.

Opting In and Opting Out

If your customer gives you their phone number, you need to be able to tell us when and where they gave you their phone number (i.e. opted-in to your communications) and you need to document what type of messages or communications you intend on sending to them. For example, are they marketing messages or are they OTPs. A screenshot of this opt- in if available on your website is ideal.
We've put together this page on all you need to know when it comes to collecting opt-ins and customer consent.

Content

You’ll need to give us what we call “sample messages”. These are examples of the text messages you’ll be sending to your contacts. They would normally have your brand name at the start and must include opt-out keywords (normally at the end of the message, something like “Reply Stop to Opt-out”).
We’ll need to know if you intend to send out URLs or phone numbers in your messages.
We’ll also need to know if you’re going to send age-gated content or if your messages are related to financial lending or loans.

If you have any questions, or need any help with your application, contact us.

What do we mean when we say we need your Business Number:

Please enter the numeric portion of your VAT ID number. If your country is NOT on the following list, then provide the primary corporation registration number or Tax ID number for your country.

EUROPE	MIDDLE EAST	ASIA PACIFIC	SOUTH AMERICA
Belarus (BY)	United Arab Emirates (AE)	Australia (AU)	Chile (CL)
Croatia (HR)	Saudi Arabia (SA)	New Zealand (NZ)
Hungary (HU)		Malaysia (MY)
Iceland (IS)		Malaysia (MY)
Ireland (IE)		Singapore (SG)
Italy (IT)		Taiwan (TW)
Lithuania (LT)
Luxembourg (LU)
Latvia (LV)
Malta (MT)
Netherlands (NL)
Northern Ireland (XI)
Norway (NO)
Poland (PL)
Portugal (PT)
Romania (RO)
Slovakia (SK)
Slovenia (SL)
Sweden (SE)