What is 10DLC?

10 Digit Long Code (10DLC) is a new industry standard that governs application-to-person (A2P) texting using traditional 10-digit phone numbers. By complying with 10DLC, your business can leverage higher messaging throughput levels over 10-digit phone numbers, making them more suitable for running large SMS or MMS campaigns. 10DLC also benefits the recipients of your text message campaigns - by reviewing, vetting, and sanctioning message senders, 10DLC aims to reduce the volume of unwanted spam text messages received by every mobile subscriber in the US.

If you're a business using 10-digit long code numbers to send application-to-person messages to customers in the US, you're required to register for 10DLC. You can register by following the steps in our 10DLC registration guide.

The key players involved in 10DLC are Brands, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Third-Party Vetting Partners, and the Campaign Registry.

10DLC Brands are identities that are associated with your business. Your Brand is associated with your business's Employer Identification Number (EIN), which is a federal tax identification number administered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To be compliant with 10DLC, your business must create a brand - this brand associates your business with the messages you send.

→ Learn how to create a brand by following our 10DLC getting started guide.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are telecoms entities that provide service for mobile phone subscribers, including text messaging. Several large MNOs are participating in 10DLC, including AT&T, T-Mobile (and their subsidiary, Sprint), Verizon, and UScellular.

MNOs each determine throughput limits in messages-per-second (MPS) for your 10DLC text messaging campaigns based on various factors, including your brand and the type of messages being sent by your business.

→ Telnyx can advise your business on how to achieve higher throughput from MNOs while remaining compliant with 10DLC. To learn more, and gain insight into how MNOs determine throughput, see Article: 10DLC Messaging throughput, Trust Scores, and Vetting.

Third-Party Vetting Partners are organizations approved by the Campaign Registry to vet 10DLC Brands. These organizations are:

CampaignVerify is the designated third-party vetting partner for political texting campaigns. For more information on 10DLC for political campaigns, see Article: Frequently asked questions about 10DLC.

Businesses can submit their brands for vetting by these third-party vetting partners, resulting in a vetting score that can potentially improve MNOs' trust in that brand, and result in MNOs allowing that brand to send 10DLC-compliant messages with higher throughput. For more information on third-party vetting, see Article: 10DLC Messaging throughput, Trust Scores, and Vetting.

The Campaign Registry is a central hub for 10DLC brands and campaigns. Interfacing directly with the mobile network operators, the Campaign Registry maintains a database of approved 10DLC campaigns, allowing mobile network operators to see all messages sent as part of any given 10DLC campaign, as well as the associated brand.

Telnyx provides APIs and connectivity to programmatically send text messages. We also offer tools and APIs that interface directly with the Campaign Registry, allowing you to create your Brands and Campaigns directly inside our portal or via our APIs. From there, you can associate your 10-digit phone numbers with these campaigns, giving you the ability to send 10DLC-compliant text messages from these 10-digit phone numbers.

For updates on our newest 10DLC functionality, see our Release Notes.

While Telnyx provides these tools and APIs to help your business comply, it's your business's responsibility to ensure that any application-to-person (A2P) text messages that are sent over 10-digit long-code numbers by your business (or your customers, if you're an Independent Service Vendor) are compliant with 10DLC. Any fees or fines imposed on your business by MNOs for 10DLC non-compliance are the responsibility of your business.