10DLC Registration

10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) is the US carrier-mandated system for sending Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS messages using standard 10-digit phone numbers. All businesses sending SMS to US numbers must register through 10DLC to ensure deliverability and compliance.

Overview

US carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon) require 10DLC registration for A2P messaging. Unregistered traffic faces:

Aggressive filtering — messages silently blocked
Higher fees — per-message surcharges for unregistered senders
Low throughput — limited to ~1 message/second vs. 75+ when registered

Orbit handles the registration process through The Campaign Registry (TCR).

Recommended flow: use the 10DLC registration wizard — it saves a resumable draft, lets you fill brand and campaign sections in any order, verifies a sole-proprietor’s phone by OTP, and submits both atomically. The linear endpoints below remain available for scripted pipelines.

Registration Steps

Step 1: Register Your Brand

Create a brand identity that represents your organization.

curl -X POST https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/10dlc/brand \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "entity_type": "PRIVATE_PROFIT",
    "display_name": "Acme Corp",
    "company_name": "Acme Corporation Inc.",
    "ein": "12-3456789",
    "phone": "+14155551234",
    "street": "1 Market St",
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "state": "CA",
    "postal_code": "94105",
    "country": "US",
    "email": "compliance@acme.com",
    "website": "https://acme.com",
    "vertical": "TECHNOLOGY"
  }'

entity_type must be one of PRIVATE_PROFIT, PUBLIC_PROFIT, NON_PROFIT, GOVERNMENT, or SOLE_PROPRIETOR. display_name, company_name, phone, street, city, state, postal_code, and email are required; ein and website are optional. Response (201 Created):

{
  "data": {
    "brandId": "BXXXXXX",
    "status": "PENDING"
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_abc123",
    "timestamp": "2026-03-08T12:00:00Z"
  }
}

Brand vetting typically completes within 24–48 hours.

Step 2: Create a Campaign

Before you submit — run the preflight linter against your brand + campaign payload. It catches the deterministic TCR rejections (missing opt-out wording, shortener links, use-case echo) while fixing them is still free. Each rejected submission costs a new vetting fee and restarts the 1–5 business-day review clock.

curl -X POST https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/10dlc/campaign \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "brand_id": "BXXXXXX",
    "usecase": "CUSTOMER_CARE",
    "description": "Sending order updates and support responses to customers who opted in on our website checkout form.",
    "sample_message": [
      "Your order #12345 has shipped! Track at https://acme.com/track/12345",
      "Hi! Your support ticket #567 has been resolved. Reply STOP to unsubscribe."
    ],
    "message_flow": "Customers opt in via a web form at checkout and confirm consent. They can reply STOP at any time to opt out.",
    "help_message": "Reply HELP for assistance or contact support@acme.com.",
    "optout_message": "You have been unsubscribed and will receive no further messages."
  }'

description must be at least 40 characters, message_flow at least 40, and both help_message and optout_message at least 20. sample_message is an array of 1–10 representative messages. Political-vertical campaigns (usecase of POLITICAL_ADVOCACY or POLLING_AND_VOTING, or is_political: true) additionally require a Campaign Verify cv_token. Response (201 Created):

{
  "data": {
    "campaignId": "CXXXXXX",
    "status": "PENDING"
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_def456",
    "timestamp": "2026-03-08T12:05:00Z"
  }
}

Step 3: Wait for Approval

Campaign review takes 1–5 business days. You can check status:

curl https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/10dlc/campaigns/CXXXXXX/status \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_your_key_here"

Response:

{
  "data": {
    "campaignId": "CXXXXXX",
    "status": "APPROVED",
    "brandId": "BXXXXXX",
    "mnoStatuses": {
      "10017": "APPROVED",
      "10035": "APPROVED",
      "10095": "REVIEW"
    },
    "provider": "telnyx"
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_ghi789",
    "timestamp": "2026-03-09T09:00:00Z"
  }
}

The top-level status is the CSP-level decision. mnoStatuses is the per-carrier approval map (keys are MNO carrier ids — e.g. 10017 T-Mobile, 10035 AT&T, 10095 Verizon); a campaign can be APPROVED at the CSP level while still in REVIEW at an individual carrier. Statuses:

Status	Description
`PENDING`	Submitted, awaiting carrier review
`APPROVED`	Approved — you can start sending
`FAILED`	Rejected — see `rejectionReason` for details

Step 4: Start Sending

Once approved, messages sent from registered numbers receive full 10DLC throughput and deliverability.

If a filing comes back FAILED, a vetting score caps your tier, or you need the headroom an approved campaign actually has — the 10DLC rejections and re-vet guide covers the decoder, re-vet, and throughput endpoints.

Preflight Your Submission

Most TCR rejections are deterministic — the same handful of content and completeness patterns trip first-time submissions over and over. Each rejection burns a new vetting fee (

4–

15 per resubmission) and restarts the 1–5 business-day review clock. Orbit ships a preflight linter that scores your brand + campaign payload against the known rejection-pattern catalog before you submit, and returns per-field findings — each with a severity, the exact offending text fragment, and a concrete rewrite suggestion. POST /api/v1/compliance/10dlc/preflight The linter is a pure rule engine: nothing is sent to TCR, nothing is stored, and no application is created. Any role on the organization can call it — no numbers:write scope required. Send the brand and campaign objects exactly as you plan to submit them, plus an optional brand_vetting_score (0–100) when you already hold one:

curl -X POST https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/compliance/10dlc/preflight \
  -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "brand": {
      "display_name": "Acme Corp",
      "entity_type": "PRIVATE_PROFIT",
      "ein": "12-3456789",
      "email": "compliance@acme.com",
      "website": "https://acme.com"
    },
    "campaign": {
      "usecase": "MARKETING",
      "description": "Acme sends weekend promotional offers to customers who opt in on our checkout page.",
      "sample_message": [
        "Acme: 20% off today. Shop at https://bit.ly/acme-sale"
      ],
      "message_flow": "Customers opt in at checkout. They can reply STOP at any time to opt out.",
      "help_message": "Reply HELP for assistance or email support@acme.com.",
      "optout_message": "You are unsubscribed. Reply STOP to opt out.",
      "expected_msg_per_day_per_number": 5000
    },
    "brand_vetting_score": 45
  }'

Response (200 OK):

{
  "data": {
    "score": 61,
    "verdict": "block",
    "findings": [
      {
        "ruleId": "R-CAMP-SAMPLE-SHORTENER",
        "severity": "error",
        "field": "campaign.sample_message[0]",
        "message": "Public URL shortener detected. Carriers auto-reject shortener domains in sample messages.",
        "match": "bit.ly",
        "suggestion": "Replace the shortener with a link on your own domain (e.g. acme.com/sale)."
      },
      {
        "ruleId": "R-CAMP-SAMPLES-COUNT",
        "severity": "warn",
        "field": "campaign.sample_message",
        "message": "Only one sample message provided. TCR vets 2-10 distinct samples covering your real traffic.",
        "suggestion": "Add distinct samples (welcome, reminder, confirmation) so TCR sees the full campaign."
      },
      {
        "ruleId": "R-CAMP-SAMPLE-CTA-STOP",
        "severity": "warn",
        "field": "campaign.sample_message[0]",
        "message": "Sample message does not reference STOP. Carriers expect opt-out wording in at least one sample.",
        "match": "Acme: 20% off today.",
        "suggestion": "Append \"Reply STOP to unsubscribe.\" to the sample."
      },
      {
        "ruleId": "R-CAMP-THROUGHPUT-TIER",
        "severity": "warn",
        "field": "campaign.expected_msg_per_day_per_number",
        "message": "Declared throughput exceeds the daily cap your vetting tier qualifies for.",
        "suggestion": "Lower the declared volume or raise your vetting score to qualify for a higher tier."
      }
    ],
    "engine": "tcr-preflight/v1"
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_pf001",
    "timestamp": "2026-08-28T09:00:00Z"
  }
}

Response shape. score is 0–100 (100 = no known patterns matched; each finding deducts by severity). verdict is the aggregate — block when any error finding is present, warn below a score of 75, otherwise pass. Every findings[] entry carries a stable ruleId, a severity (error | warn | info), the dot-path field it applies to, a human summary, an optional match with the exact offending text (for highlighting in your UI), and a suggestion — a rewrite that resolves the finding. engine is the rule-engine version (tcr-preflight/v1), so you can correlate scores over time.

A pass verdict means “no known rejection patterns matched” — not “TCR will approve”. The linter catches the deterministic majority of rejections; your submission still goes through the normal carrier review. It is an advisor, never a gate: you decide when to submit.

What the 10DLC linter checks

The catalog encodes the patterns TCR and carriers reject on. Key rules:

Rule ID	Severity	What it catches
`R-BRAND-EIN`	error	EIN format does not match a valid US tax-id shape
`R-BRAND-EMAIL-DOMAIN`	warn	Email on a free-provider domain carriers discount (gmail.com, etc.)
`R-BRAND-WEBSITE`	warn	Website missing or not a public, branded URL
`R-CAMP-DESC-LEN` / `R-CAMP-DESC-GENERIC`	error	Description too short, or just echoes the use-case name verbatim
`R-CAMP-SAMPLES-COUNT`	warn	Too few sample messages — the linter also flags placeholder text like `Hi {{firstName}}` (`R-CAMP-SAMPLE-PLACEHOLDER`)
`R-CAMP-SAMPLE-SHAFT`	error	SHAFT-C content in samples (sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, tobacco, cannabis) — auto-reject categories
`R-CAMP-SAMPLE-BLOCKLIST`	error	Carrier content-blocklist phrases (MEF / UCC §3.4) — shared catalog with the short-code linter
`R-CAMP-SAMPLE-SHORTENER`	error	Public URL shorteners (bit.ly, t.co, tinyurl.com …) — carriers auto-reject
`R-CAMP-SAMPLE-CLICK-HERE`	warn	Vague “click here” without a destination name
`R-CAMP-SAMPLE-CTA-STOP`	warn	No sample mentions the STOP opt-out
`R-CAMP-HELP` / `R-CAMP-OPTOUT`	error	`help_message` / `optout_message` missing the canonical keyword set
`R-CAMP-FLOW`	error	`message_flow` missing or generic (the opt-in flow TCR vets hardest)
`R-CAMP-AI-USECASE`	warn	AI-driven campaign whose description omits the AI use-case disclosure
`R-CAMP-THROUGHPUT-TIER`	warn	Declared daily volume exceeds the cap your `brand_vetting_score` qualifies for

Fix each finding in order of severity, re-run the linter until the response is clean (verdict: "pass"), then submit the same payload through Step 2.

Use Case Types

Pass one of these values in the usecase field when creating a campaign (Step 2). TCR codes are uppercase — send them exactly as shown; a lowercase value is rejected at registration.

Use Case	Description	Throughput
`CUSTOMER_CARE`	Account support, service replies, and alerts	Set by vetting score
`MARKETING`	Promotions, offers, and sales outreach	Set by vetting score
`ACCOUNT_NOTIFICATION`	Account changes, billing, and security notices	Set by vetting score
`DELIVERY_NOTIFICATION`	Order, shipping, and delivery updates	Set by vetting score
`TWO_FACTOR_AUTH`	One-time passcodes and 2FA challenges	Set by vetting score
`POLLING_AND_VOTING`	Surveys and polling (political campaigns also need a Campaign Verify token)	Set by vetting score
`PUBLIC_SERVICE_ANNOUNCEMENT`	Public-interest announcements	Set by vetting score
`CHARITY`	Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit messaging	Reduced (501(c)(3) lane)
`EMERGENCY`	Safety and public-alert messaging	Carrier priority
`MIXED`	Multiple use cases in a single campaign (the default)	Reduced daily cap

Throughput Tiers

10DLC throughput is granted as a per-day, per-number message-segment cap, not a per-second rate. Your tier is set by your brand vetting score (0–100) and your registered entity type. Each tier’s daily cap applies to every number assigned to the campaign, so total campaign throughput scales with the count of assigned numbers.

Tier	Eligibility	Daily cap per number
Sole Proprietor	Entity type `SOLE_PROPRIETOR`	~1,000 msg/day
Low Volume Standard	Baseline (any brand, including unscored)	~30,000 msg/day
Standard	Vetting score 50 or higher	~200,000 msg/day
Top Tier	Vetting score 75 or higher	~2,000,000 msg/day

Caps reflect T-Mobile defaults; AT&T and Verizon are within roughly 10%. You are granted the highest tier your vetting score qualifies for. A brand with no score yet defaults to the Low Volume Standard baseline.

Improve your vetting score by providing complete, accurate brand information including EIN, website, and stock symbol (if public). A score of 75 or higher unlocks the Top Tier daily cap.

Compliance Requirements

Opt-in consent. You must have explicit consent from every recipient before sending.
Opt-out handling. Honor STOP requests immediately. Orbit automatically processes STOP, CANCEL, and UNSUBSCRIBE.
Message content. Sample messages must be representative of actual traffic.
Consistent use. Only send messages that match your registered campaign use case.

Dashboard Registration

You can also complete the entire 10DLC registration through the Orbit dashboard:

Navigate to Settings > Compliance > 10DLC
Click Register Brand and fill in your company details
Once the brand is approved, click Create Campaign
Select your use case, add sample messages, and assign numbers
Submit for carrier review

Country-Rule Feed Configuration

This section is for platform operators / self-hosted deployments. SaaS customers on api.orbit.devotel.io do not need to set these — Orbit keeps the 10DLC country rules current for you.

Orbit keeps its canonical US-10DLC country ruleset (sender types, throughput posture, registration requirement) fresh by pulling from the iconectiv TCR partner feed. The connector lives in @devotel/compliance/country-rule-feeds and runs in two places:

On-demand — the admin “Refresh from upstream” action (POST /api/v1/compliance/country-rules/sync?provider=iconectiv).
Weekly — the auto-refresh tick in the webhook-worker’s compliance-sync scheduler.

The connector is optional and fail-open: when its credentials are unset it logs an error and skips, leaving any existing country rules in place. It is a read-only metadata feed — never a message-transport path, so outbound SMS still exits via the Devotel softswitch.

Variable	Required	Description
`DEVOTEL_TCR_API_KEY`	for the feed	iconectiv TCR partner API key. The connector skips when unset.
`DEVOTEL_TCR_PARTNER_ID`	for the feed	iconectiv TCR partner id (path segment on the partner API). The connector skips when unset.
`DEVOTEL_TCR_FEED_URL`	optional	Override base URL for the partner API. Defaults to `https://csp-api.campaignregistry.com`.
`DEVOTEL_TCR_OPTOUT_URL`	optional	Override the full URL of the TCR Universal Opt-Out registry endpoint that drives the DNC opt-out pull. Defaults to `<feed_url>/v1/partner/<partner_id>/universalOptOuts`. Read-only — never a send path.

Both DEVOTEL_TCR_API_KEY and DEVOTEL_TCR_PARTNER_ID must be set for the feed to run; if either is missing the connector no-ops. Register Devotel as a TCR partner at iconectiv.com to obtain these credentials.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Brand rejected	Verify your EIN matches IRS records exactly
Campaign rejected	Ensure sample messages match the selected use case and include opt-out language
Low vetting score	Provide complete brand info (website, stock symbol, full legal name)
Messages still filtered	Confirm the campaign status is `approved` and numbers are assigned

Sending high-volume SMS without 10DLC registration may result in carrier filtering, message blocking, and potential number suspension.

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10DLC registration for US A2P messaging compliance

10DLC Registration

Overview

Registration Steps

Step 1: Register Your Brand

Step 2: Create a Campaign

Step 3: Wait for Approval

Step 4: Start Sending

Preflight Your Submission

What the 10DLC linter checks

Use Case Types

Throughput Tiers

Compliance Requirements

Dashboard Registration

Country-Rule Feed Configuration

Troubleshooting

​10DLC Registration

​Overview

​Registration Steps

​Step 1: Register Your Brand

​Step 2: Create a Campaign

​Step 3: Wait for Approval

​Step 4: Start Sending

​Preflight Your Submission

​What the 10DLC linter checks

​Use Case Types

​Throughput Tiers

​Compliance Requirements

​Dashboard Registration

​Country-Rule Feed Configuration

​Troubleshooting

10DLC Registration

Overview

Registration Steps

Step 1: Register Your Brand

Step 2: Create a Campaign

Step 3: Wait for Approval

Step 4: Start Sending

Preflight Your Submission

What the 10DLC linter checks

Use Case Types

Throughput Tiers

Compliance Requirements

Dashboard Registration

Country-Rule Feed Configuration

Troubleshooting