What Is the 10 DLC and the Campaign Registry?

This guest post is courtesy of our partners at Drips, the Conversational Outreach Platform. The Drips Conversational AI Platform has over 1,000,000+ humanized engagements per day and is backed by a team of conversational outreach experts dedicated to helping  you achieve your unique business objectives. 

If you’re in the telecommunications loop, you’ve likely heard about 10DLC TCR. (Wow, our industry really loves acronyms, don’t we?) The resulting changes will significantly impact the way your SMS campaigns work.

Let’s take a look at what’s changed and why.

What is 10 DLC Campaign Registry?

10 Digit Long Code (10DLC) is the sanctioned standard for A2P text messaging utilizing a traditional 10-digit phone number. Although similar to the existing long code, 10DLC is a reliable messaging channel with throughput levels suitable for SMS campaigns and is sanctioned by mobile operators. In addition to messaging, 10DLC supports voice calls on the same number used for Commercial SMS.

The Campaign Registry (TCR) is the registration body for all A2P 10DLC messaging campaigns. TCR works with North American mobile operators and companies in the messaging business to register Application-to-Person (A2P) text messaging Campaigns.

The registry supports a sanctioned A2P 10 Digit Long Code text messaging campaign ecosystem and provides visibility into the messaging source and content, allowing mobile carriers to offer a more reliable and predictable messaging service for Campaign Service Providers (CSPs) and brands. Vetting through TCR’s external partners represents a more detailed review of the brand focusing on its reputation in the messaging space. The result is a 0-100 score that will place the brand in one of the available Carrier Tiers.

The Vetting Score, which can be obtained through TCR or imported, refers to a more profound series of checks which include the reputation in the messaging ecosystem of the brand you submitted.

Isn’t This the Same as STIR/SHAKEN?

They are not, though they have the same mission: to introduce transparency to stop robo spam and scam calls and messages.

If 10DLC sounds very similar to STIR/SHAKEN, you’re not wrong. However, there is one key difference: 10DLC focuses on the brand and the campaigns that a company wants to execute (the use cases). This includes looking at the legitimacy of the business, the outgoing messages, and whether that brand has processes for handling Opt-in/Opt-Out by consumers.

Conversely, STIR/SHAKEN is a simpler binary process or protocol that “signs” phone calls as legitimate. One of the purposes of STIR/SHAKEN is to combat fake or spoofed robocalls by assigning a “token” to a phone number. The absence of a legitimate token tells the carrier, provider, or device that the phone number may not be legitimate.

In short, 10DLC TCR is like a “Verified” status on Twitter for brands and campaigns—it shows that the messages sent from your campaign are legitimate. Validating your messages are from a real company, STIR/SHAKEN validates the caller is real and owns the phone number.

SMS Deliverability Impact

While new regulations may seem confusing, bothersome, or even annoying, this update may positively impact your campaigns. Carriers have visibility into the “who” and “what” of each messaging campaign which allows them, in turn, to provide a better quality of service for 10DLC messaging. That means brands can have confidence knowing that they are using an officially sanctioned messaging channel and may benefit from better service for their messaging campaigns.

There’s good news for Drips partners, though — although the changes and pivots to 10DLC have happened quickly, Drips was prepared, and our team has already developed solutions to cause as little friction to campaigns as possible.

Drips has always ensured that we are a partner to our clients. This change is simply another opportunity for us to help our clients navigate our quickly changing industry.

Want more information on Drips, 10DLC, or how to integrate Drips within your existing LeadConduit account?

Contact us.

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