Glossary · 10DLC

What is 10DLC?

10DLC (10-digit long code) is the US mobile carriers’ standard for Application-to-Person (A2P) business SMS sent from standard 10-digit phone numbers. It requires the sender to register their brand and each messaging campaign with The Campaign Registry (TCR), pay per-message carrier fees, and stay within throughput limits determined by a trust score. 10DLC replaced the previously-unregulated approach to business SMS on long codes and is enforced by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and other US carriers. Non-registered A2P traffic on 10-digit numbers is filtered or blocked.

Why 10DLC exists

Before 10DLC, businesses sent SMS from regular 10-digit phone numbers with no registration requirement. Carriers saw high volumes of spam, phishing, and illegal traffic. Their response was the 10DLC standard: require businesses to register so carriers know who is sending what, and enforce compliance via throughput limits and filtering.

10DLC gives legitimate senders a faster, more reliable path (higher throughput, fewer filtering surprises) while keeping spam out.

Who needs 10DLC registration

Any US business sending A2P SMS from a 10-digit number — which includes:

Appointment reminders
Order confirmations
Shipping updates
Customer support conversations
Sales follow-ups
Marketing messages
Two-factor authentication codes
Any “application-initiated” messaging

Person-to-person (P2P) conversational messaging from an individual’s personal phone doesn’t require 10DLC. The dividing line is intent and scale — a business sending at scale is A2P.

10DLC components

Brand registration

The company sending SMS registers itself with The Campaign Registry. Basic (standard) brand registration is lower-cost and lower-trust-score. Vetted brand registration (higher cost, external vetting by Aegis Mobile or similar) unlocks higher throughput.

Brand data required:

Legal entity name
EIN or tax ID
Business address
Industry
Website
Stock ticker (if public)

Campaign registration

Each use case (type of SMS you send) is registered as a separate campaign. Categories include:

2FA
Account notifications
Customer care / support
Marketing
Higher education
Polling / voting
Public service announcements
Charity
Low-volume mixed (flexible, for small senders)

Each campaign has a description, sample message content, opt-in mechanism, and opt-out handling. The Campaign Registry approves or rejects based on completeness and compliance.

Trust score

Each brand gets a trust score (1–100) based on vetting status, history, and complaints. Higher trust = higher throughput (messages per second per phone number) and lower filtering risk.

Throughput and MPS

10DLC throughput is measured in Messages Per Second (MPS) per number, determined by:

Trust score (vetted vs. standard)
Number type (toll-free, short code, or 10DLC)
Carrier (each carrier has its own MPS rules)

Typical 10DLC ranges: 1–3 MPS (standard) up to 60+ MPS (high-trust vetted brands).

Carrier fees

Each carrier charges a per-message fee on top of your SMS provider’s rates. Fees vary but typically $0.0025–$0.005 per message per carrier. These fees are passed through by your provider.

10DLC registration timeline

Standard registration: 1 to 2 weeks from submission to approved brand
Vetted registration: 2 to 4 weeks including external vetting
Campaign approval: usually 1 to 3 business days per campaign after brand is approved

Plan ahead: do not wait until launch day. Complications come up (EIN mismatch, industry category questions, website issues) and delays happen.

10DLC vs. other SMS options

Option	Use case	Regulatory	Cost	Throughput
10DLC	A2P from standard 10-digit numbers	Brand + campaign registration required	Per-msg carrier fees + SMS provider costs	1–60+ MPS by trust score
Toll-free SMS	A2P from toll-free (800/888)	Toll-free verification	Per-msg fees	Usually 3 MPS
Short code	High-volume marketing (e.g., “Text JOIN to 12345”)	Heavy vetting, carrier approval	$1,000+/month + per-msg fees	High
P2P (unregistered)	True person-to-person, low volume	Not A2P, don’t use at scale	Standard per-msg	Limited

Most small and mid-market businesses use 10DLC because it’s the most cost-effective A2P path with reasonable throughput.

Compliance requirements

10DLC itself is a carrier-driven registration standard, but the legal compliance bar for SMS comes from TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act):

Prior express consent for marketing messages
STOP-keyword handling (SMS opt-out rules)
Quiet hours (8pm–8am local) for promotional messages
Identification — sender must identify themselves in messages
Honor DNC list — Do Not Call registry applies to SMS in many interpretations

DialPhone handles 10DLC registration and the TCPA compliance mechanics automatically: STOP/START keywords, quiet hours enforcement, consent audit trail, carrier fee pass-through.

What happens without 10DLC

Unregistered A2P traffic on 10-digit numbers gets:

Filtered — carriers silently drop the message without delivery
Delayed — artificial rate limits
Rejected — sender receives error codes (SMPP/CPaaS-level)
Flagged — sender’s number gets a bad reputation, compounds problems

Many businesses launch SMS programs, see delivery rates of 10–30%, and blame the wrong thing. The answer is almost always 10DLC registration.

DialPhone and 10DLC

DialPhone handles 10DLC for customers:

Guide through brand registration in the admin portal
Submit campaigns based on your stated use cases
Auto-configure STOP keywords and quiet hours
Pass carrier fees through transparently
Monitor trust score and filtering events
Support vetted brand registration for higher-volume senders

Typical customer is live on registered 10DLC in 5 to 10 business days.

Example

A real-estate brokerage launched SMS marketing with no 10DLC registration. Delivery rate: 32%. Complaints that “my texts aren’t going through.” After DialPhone onboarded them through standard 10DLC registration (9 days to approved campaign): delivery rate 94%, cost per delivered message actually lower because messages stop bouncing. The messaging volume didn’t change — carrier filtering did.

See DialPhone SMS and 10DLC support

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