About Carrier Registration Requirements
In 2016 the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that business text message senders would be required to comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
Since this time, the telecommunications industry has been working to define, roll out, and enforce procedures to comply with these regulations internally. Registration requirements for businesses using text messaging as a communications channel have increased significantly since 2016. As of 2023, these requirements are now being strongly enforced by telephone carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, etc.
The goals of the TCPA have been to:
Reduce text message spam and promote it as a trusted and viable communication channel.
Prevent additional federal oversight in the industry as much as possible, by regulating itself - similar to the restaurant industry.
All businesses that use applications to send text messages in the United States must now register their company, texting use case, and all phone numbers to prevent message filtering and blocking. This is being enforced regardless of the text messaging application utilized.
Failure to comply with carrier guidelines can lead to fines, legal action, message filtering/blocking.
Here is how we can work together to ensure that does not happen:
Mogli submits registration details on your behalf
Mogli provides best practices for obtaining consent in the US
You review the CTIA best practices, TCPA guidelines
You consult legal counsel when planning your opt-in strategy
Registration requirements are ever-changing, and we are committed to providing the most current and accurate guidelines
To register with a carrier, Mogli will collect information and submit on your behalf. This involves a brand and campaign(s) registration:
A brand represents who you are as an organization.
A campaign represents your SMS use case. You may need to declare multiple Campaigns if you have multiple types of messages (such as sending authentication codes, as well as marketing messages).
Step 1: Brand Registration
The first step in the carrier registration process is to verify your brand, which represents your organization.
The details collected for your brand include:
Doing Business As (DBA) Name
Legal Organization Name
Business Type (Private, Public, Nonprofit)
Business Vertical (e.g., Education, Financial Services, Manufacturing)
Business Tax EIN
Registered Business Address (must match the tax EIN)
Website (must be live)
Brand Representative (one employee must volunteer to act as brand representative should there need to be further communication)
Step 2: Campaign Registration
Once your brand is verified, we will need to submit a campaign. A campaign contains information about your SMS use case.
The details collected for campaign registration include:
Campaign description and primary use-case
Identify sub-use cases if applicable
Opt-in consent form(s) with required language
Links to privacy policy
Links to SMS Terms of Service
Sample messages
Content attributes
Embedded URLs (if applicable)
Phone Numbers (if applicable)
Others as needed
Considerations
Sending messages that do not align with your use-case may cause fines or filtering.
Which use-case(s) best fit your campaign?
2FA
Account Notifications
Conversational
Customer Care
Delivery Notifications
Emergency/Fraud Alerts
Education
Marketing
Political
Polling/Voting
PSA
Social
Sweepstakes
Mixed Use Case
Nonprofit
The following use-cases are not allowed under any circumstance:
High-risk Financial Services
Third-party lead generation services and marketing
Debt collection or forgiveness
“Get rich quick” schemes
Illegal substances/articles
Prescription drugs
Gambling
S.H.A.F.T. - Sex, Hate, Alcohol*, Firearms, Tobacco, Vape/E-ciggs
*Alcohol traffic is allowed with proper age gating procedures
More on Forbidden SMS Content
Before texting you end recipients you must gather proper SMS opt-in consent. For a fuller explanation, check out Obtaining Consent
Ways to obtain consent:
Webforms
QR Codes
Keywords in inbound text
Paper forms
Best Practices
It's essential to meticulously prepare your A2P (Application-to-Person) campaign for carrier approval to ensure successful message delivery. This involves careful attention to content, branding, and user consent, while strictly avoiding prohibited practices.
Campaign Content and Branding
When submitting your campaign, always ensure consistency across your brand, website, and the sample messages you provide. For instance, if you register as a political campaign, your sample messages must genuinely reflect political content, rather than, say, a one-time password. Similarly, the messages you send should precisely align with the brand you've registered; a technology company, for example, shouldn't send messages for a construction client.
For corporate entities, it's crucial to use an email domain that matches your registered company name. If your brand is "Mogli," your email address should be "@mogli.com," not a generic Gmail address. If your messages will include a phone number or a link, provide sample messages that feature a live, working version of that number or link to prevent message filtering. Additionally, any websites you submit must be real and fully functional. If your website's opt-in process is gated, you'll need to provide screenshots and a clear explanation of how the opt-in works. Finally, include opt-out language in at least one of your sample messages, such as "Please reply STOP to opt out." Remember to avoid any prohibited content, including cannabis, hate speech, or other forbidden use cases, as these will lead to campaign rejection.
User Consent and Opt-In Practices
Properly collecting and managing user consent is paramount. As of October 14, 2024, any Call to Action (CTA) for text messaging on your opt-in forms must be exclusively specific to messaging, not generic. Additionally, the phone number field on website opt-in forms must be optional, as mandatory fields are now considered forced opt-ins.
Every text messaging CTA that collects a phone number needs opt-in language that specifically refers to text messaging, along with a dedicated checkbox for SMS consent. These must be collected separately; a single opt-in checkbox should never combine permissions for email, phone calls, and SMS. Your opt-in language should also explicitly include consent and opt-out instructions, as well as disclosures about message frequency, such as "Message frequency varies." Your Privacy Policy must never permit the sharing or selling of end-user informationto other parties or affiliates, ensuring that you only send messages to genuinely opted-in recipients. All consumer opt-in must be collected appropriately and be easily provable, covering general consent, specific consent for marketing messages (if applicable), and the consumer's ability to revoke consent at any time.
Want more details? Please refer to the CTIA guidelines to see detailed instructions and best practices on handling consumer consent, privacy policies, etc.