10DLC brand and campaign registration overview

Emily Champion

Updated

You can register your brand and campaign through Bandwidth or The Campaign Registry (TCR). Both options require the association of campaign IDs to telephone numbers (TNs) through the Bandwidth App.

Carrier views on brands and campaigns 

A brand is a company or entity initiating messages to consumers, while a campaign is a collection of information used to identify the use case and CTIA compliance for carrier evaluation.

AT&T is focusing on the campaigns registered to each brand and building out throughput restrictions based on the type of campaign and use case. They have different surcharges based on the campaign class assigned, and having a single use case on a campaign lowers the surcharge. 

T-Mobile focuses on the brand rather than the campaign with a daily allowance for throughput allocated to the brand itself. If a brand has multiple campaigns under it, then the allowance is shared across all campaigns. They have a single flat rate when it comes to surcharges. 

Dedicated Campaign vs. Mixed Campaign

DEDICATED MIXED

PRO

When a single use case is on a Dedicated Campaign, non-compliant messaging only affects that one campaign.

PRO

Can use a single number for multiple use cases. Involves a single campaign fee.

CON

Increased cost, as each use case has to be registered as its own campaign.

CON

When use cases share a campaign, non-compliant messaging on one use case could suspend service for the entire campaign.  

Low Volume Campaigns

Low-volume campaigns are recommended for small businesses sending fewer than 15,000 messages a month across all carriers. These campaigns are designed for messages that aren't time-sensitive and can be an excellent lower-cost option for use cases that aren't volume-heavy.

Note: You can send up to 2,000 messages a day per brand to T-Mobile, but you're limited to 75 SMS message segments a minute on the AT&T network. You cannot use vetting to get a higher throughput on these types of campaigns.

Standard use cases

Note: Each campaign has an initial 3-month commitment and you'll continue to be charged for it even if you cancel before the 3-month mark. As of October 6, 2022, the 3-month minimum commitment will no longer apply to political campaigns.

Standard use cases are automatically approved.

2FA: Any one-time use passcode, authentication, or verification.

Account Notifications: Standard notifications for account holders.

Customer Care: Customer interactions, including account management and customer support.

Delivery Notifications: Status of delivery of a product or service.

Fraud Alert Messaging: Notifications about potentially fraudulent activity on a user's account.

Higher Education: Messaging on behalf of colleges or universities, as well as school districts and educational institutions. This use case is not for the "free to the consumer" messaging model.

Low Volume Mixed: Brands that have multiple use cases but only need very low messaging throughput (ex: test or demo accounts, small businesses).

Marketing: Communications that include marketing or promotional content (ex: sale notifications, discount codes, etc).

Mixed: Any messaging campaign containing 2 to 5 standard use cases.

Polling and Voting: The sending of surveys and polling/voting campaigns in non-political arenas.

Public Service Announcement: Informational messaging to raise an audience's awareness about important issues.

Security Alert: Notification that the security of a system, either software or hardware, has been compromised and action is needed.

Specialty use cases

Specialty use cases require additional approvals and/or steps. The approval is not instant and may take additional time. 

Carrier Exemptions: Exemption by a carrier. Select this use case only if you have a previous agreement with the carriers or your campaign will be blocked. Please contact your Bandwidth Account Manager if you think you qualify. Not sure who your Account Manager is? Please open a ticket with your Bandwidth Support Team or hit us up at (855) 864-7776!

Charity: Communications from a registered charity aimed at providing help and raising money for those in need. 501c3 Tax-Exempt Organizations only.

Proxy: Peer-to-peer app-based group messaging with pooled/proxy numbers. Supports personalized services and non-exposure of personal numbers for the enterprise of A2P communications. When submitting, please describe your use case thoroughly to allow for the carriers to review as required. This use case typically utilizes number cycling from a number pool vs dedicated numbers for each agent (we recommend the Agents and Franchises use case for numbers dedicated to specific agents).

Sweepstakes: Gambling and sweepstakes messaging.

Emergency services: Public Safety notifications are designed to support public safety/health during natural disasters, armed conflicts, pandemics, and other national or regional emergencies.

Agents, franchises, local branches: Brands that have multiple agents, franchises, or offices in the same brand vertical, but require individual localized numbers per agent/location/office. Please provide use case details when submitting, and allow time for carrier approval.

Large CSP free trial: Strictly controlled category for pre-approved Campaign Services Providers (CSPs). Must show spam mitigation controls and controlled onboarding of developers. Will have low throughput. Requirements are currently being finalized.

Political messaging: Part of an organized effort to influence the decision-making of a specific group. All campaigns must be verified. If an organization is a 501 (c)(3), it should register under the charity class. If a 527 organization needs to register, it should register with Campaign Verify to receive a token that can then be input on the Brand page to register a political campaign. 

Social engagement: Communication between public figures/influencers and their communities. Restricted and upon business case review. Strictly limited.

Sole Proprietor 

The Sole Proprietor campaign class is limited to customers who do not have an EIN/Tax ID number. These campaigns are limited to 1 TN per campaign and are limited to 1,000 messages a day to T-Mobile. Bandwidth is not supporting Sole Proprietor use cases at this time, please reach out to your Bandwidth Support Team with any questions. 

Throughput

If you'd like to receive higher throughput, please make sure the brand information is accurate and doesn't include out-of-date or misspelled data. You can also pay for additional vetting but there is no guarantee that a higher tier will be assigned.

AT&T specifications

Campaign Class Use Case Campaign Type SMS Fee MMS Fee SMS Message Segments Per Minute (MPM) MMS Messages Per Minute (MPM) Rate Limit Settings
A & B Russell 3000 Standard .002 .0035 4500 2,400 Per campaign
C & D

Large Business

(Vetting required to move from E & F to a higher class)
Standard .002 .0035 2,400 1,200 Per campaign
E & F Medium Business Standard .002 .0035 240 150 Per campaign
T Small Business Standard .002 .0035 75 50 Per campaign
W* Very Small Business/ Sole Proprietor Standard .002 .0035 15 50 Per campaign
Not Tagged/ No Class Untagged traffic after the grace period   .004 .005 Treated at P2P
throughput rates
and SPAM filters
Treated at P2P
throughput rates
and SPAM filters

Per number

G Proxy Special .002 .0035 60 50 Per number
K Political Messaging Special .002 .0035 4500 2,400 Per campaign
N* Agents, Franchises, Banks Special .003 .0035 60 50 Per number
P Charity (Nonprofit 501(c)(3)) Special N/A N/A 2400 1,200 Per campaign
S* Social Media Platform Special .002 .0035 60,000 TBD Per campaign
X Govt Emergency/ Public Safety Special N/A N/A 4500 2,400 Per number
K-12 Schools Special N/A N/A 720 50 Per number
Z Platform Free Trial Special .002 .0035 6 50 Per Number

*Class W is limited to 1 TN per campaign.

*Class N requires a minimum of 10 agents/branches (with a maximum of 5,000) per campaign. 

*Class S: Platform must obtain "double opt-in" consent from customers. Carrier approval is required.

T-Mobile daily brand limits

Daily Bucket Maximums include T-Mobile, Sprint, and their MVNOs. The Daily Bucket Maximum is shared between all campaigns under a brand (per EIN), and also between SMS and MMS for a brand. 


Once the daily limit on a brand is reached, you should receive the error code 780 / 4780 for messages that exceed the daily brand cap. By default, most brands will receive a Risk Qualification Score of Low, meaning you can send a max of 2,000 messages per day to T-Mobile on that brand.

To increase your Risk Qualification Score, you have to go through the third-party vetting process. If registering through Bandwidth (rather than directly through TCR), please follow these instructions


Note: If you have a brand with campaigns across several providers, all campaigns under that brand will share the Daily Bucket Maximum, even if they're with different providers. The daily brand cap resets at midnight PST.

Brand Tier Vetting Type Score Bucket Range Maximum*
High-Performance Default 75 200,000
Low-Performance Default 0-24 2,000 
High 3rd Party 3rd Party 75-100 200,000
Upper Mid 3rd Party 50-74 40,000
Lower Mid 3rd Party 25-49 10,000 
Low 3rd Party 0-24 2,000 
Special N/A Discretionary Discretionary

Questions? Please open a ticket with your Bandwidth Support Team or hit us up at (855) 864-7776!

Article is closed for comments.