10DLC Compliance Checklist 2026: Register, Verify, and Stay Compliant
Why Your Business Text Messages Are Getting Filtered
If you have noticed that your SMS/MMS campaigns are getting lower delivery rates than they used to, or if customers are telling you they never received a message you sent, carrier filtering is almost certainly the cause. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have deployed increasingly aggressive filtering systems over the past few years to combat spam and fraud — and those filters do not distinguish between a legitimate business and a bad actor unless your business has completed the right registration steps.
10DLC — 10-digit long code — is the carrier-mandated registration framework that separates verified business senders from unregistered traffic. Businesses that register properly get higher throughput limits, better deliverability, and protection from blanket filtering. Businesses that skip registration face message blocking, throttling, and eventually having their numbers flagged entirely.
This checklist walks through every step of the 10DLC registration process, the most common reasons registrations get rejected, the content rules that carriers enforce, and how to maintain compliance over time.
What Is 10DLC and Why Did Carriers Require It
10DLC refers to standard 10-digit phone numbers used for business SMS/MMS messaging. Before 10DLC was introduced, any business could send messages from a 10-digit number without any registration or verification. This made it easy for spam and fraud operations to blast millions of messages while hiding behind legitimate-looking numbers.
The Campaign Registry (TCR) is the central hub that manages 10DLC registrations on behalf of the major U.S. carriers. When a business registers through TCR, the carriers can verify the sender's identity, understand what kinds of messages they are sending, and apply appropriate throughput limits based on the business's vetting score.
Registration does not guarantee delivery — content still matters — but unregistered numbers are now functionally blocked on major carrier networks for commercial messaging. The question for 2026 is not whether to register, but whether your registration is complete and accurate.
The 10DLC Registration Checklist
Step 1: Brand Registration
Brand registration is the first step. You are registering the legal entity that is sending messages — not the campaign content, not the phone numbers, just your business identity.
Required information for brand registration:
Legal business name: Must match your EIN registration exactly. Discrepancies between your brand registration and IRS records are a leading cause of rejection.
EIN (Employer Identification Number): Required for all U.S. businesses. Sole proprietors using a Social Security Number instead of an EIN will need to obtain an EIN before registering.
Business type: Publicly traded company, private company, non-profit, or government entity. Each category has different vetting requirements and different throughput limits.
Physical business address: A verifiable U.S. business address. P.O. boxes are not accepted.
Website URL: The domain must match your brand and must contain a functioning privacy policy that mentions how you use SMS/MMS communications.
Industry vertical: Select the category that most accurately describes your business. This affects how carriers evaluate your campaign type later in the process.
Brand registration is processed through TCR and typically takes 24–48 hours. Once approved, you receive a Brand ID that carries across all campaigns you register.
Step 2: Brand Vetting (Optional but Strongly Recommended)
Standard brand registration gives your business a basic TCR Trust Score. Higher scores translate directly to higher daily message throughput — the number of SMS/MMS segments you can send per day per number.
Brand vetting is an additional verification step performed by third-party vetting providers. During vetting, TCR cross-references your business against public records, credit data, and other identity verification sources to assign a more accurate trust score. Businesses that complete vetting often see scores in the 75–100 range compared to 40–60 for standard registration.
Higher trust scores matter most for businesses with significant sending volume. A company sending 10,000 messages per month gets through fine at basic scores. A company sending 500,000 messages per month needs the throughput that only high-score vetting provides.
Step 3: Campaign Registration
Once your brand is registered, you register each campaign — the specific use case for which you will be sending messages. Campaign registration is where most businesses run into problems because the requirements are more specific than most people expect.
Required for each campaign:
Use case type: TCR has a defined list of campaign use cases including marketing, 2FA/OTP, customer care, delivery notifications, fraud alerts, polling, and others. Your use case must accurately reflect what you are actually sending. Registering messages as transactional when they are promotional is a compliance violation.
Campaign description: A plain-English description of exactly what messages you will be sending. Vague descriptions like "general business communications" are frequently rejected. Be specific: "Promotional SMS/MMS messages to opted-in customers announcing new product arrivals, seasonal sales, and loyalty program updates."
Sample messages: TCR requires 2–5 sample messages that represent what you will actually be sending. Samples must include your business name, message content, opt-out instructions, and for marketing, a clear indication that the message is commercial in nature. Samples that do not match your stated use case are a rejection trigger.
Opt-in method: You must describe how contacts have opted in to receive your messages. Options include web form, text-to-join keyword, paper sign-up, point-of-sale, or verbal confirmation. The method must be TCPA-compliant.
Opt-out confirmation: Confirmation that your platform handles STOP keywords by immediately unsubscribing contacts and sending a STOP confirmation message.
Help response: Confirmation that replying HELP returns your business name and a phone number or website for support.
Step 4: Number Assignment
Once your campaign is approved, you assign specific phone numbers to it. Numbers must be assigned before sending any messages — using a registered campaign with unassigned numbers results in filtered traffic.
Number assignment ties your specific 10-digit numbers to your approved campaign and brand. If you change numbers or add numbers to your sending pool, those new numbers must be added to your campaign registration before they go live.
Common Rejection Reasons (and How to Avoid Them)
TCR campaign registration rejects a significant percentage of submissions. Here are the most common reasons:
EIN mismatch: The business name on your registration does not exactly match your IRS EIN records. Even minor differences — LLC vs. L.L.C. or a comma in the wrong place — cause rejections. Verify your exact legal name through IRS records before submitting.
Privacy policy missing or insufficient: Your website must have a visible privacy policy that explicitly mentions SMS/MMS communications and how contact information is collected and used. A generic privacy policy that does not mention text messaging is not sufficient.
Opt-in language missing from web form: If your opt-in method is a website form, TCR may check whether the form actually contains opt-in language. Forms that collect phone numbers without any SMS/MMS opt-in disclosure are a rejection trigger and a TCPA violation.
Sample messages do not match use case: If you registered as Customer Care but your sample messages are promotional offers, expect rejection. Samples must accurately represent what you are sending.
Restricted content in samples: Including anything that touches the SHAFT categories (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco) without applying for the appropriate special registration will result in immediate rejection.
Vague campaign description: "Business communications" tells TCR nothing. Specific, accurate descriptions of exactly what you are sending are processed faster and rejected less frequently.
Content Standards: What Carriers Will and Will Not Allow
Registration gives your messages better treatment by carriers, but content standards still apply to every message you send. Violating content standards can result in message filtering even with a fully registered campaign.
SHAFT categories — Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco/Cannabis/Vaping — are restricted or prohibited depending on the specific content. Most require special use case registration and age verification documentation. Marketing cannabis products via SMS/MMS, for example, requires a separate Age-Gated Cannabis use case registration with documentation that your platform enforces age verification at opt-in.
Phishing and deceptive content: Messages that impersonate other brands, use deceptive subject lines, or contain links to sites that prompt credential entry are permanently blocked and can result in your brand registration being revoked.
Required message elements: Every marketing SMS/MMS message must include your business name so recipients know who is texting them, and opt-out instructions. "Reply STOP to unsubscribe" is the minimum. Missing these elements does not just risk carrier filtering — it is a TCPA violation.
Link shorteners: Public link shorteners like bit.ly or tinyurl are heavily filtered. Use branded link shorteners or full destination URLs. Many carriers will block or quarantine messages containing public shortener domains.
URL domain consistency: The domain in your message links should match your registered brand domain. Links pointing to unknown or recently registered domains flag automatically in carrier filtering systems.
Throughput Limits: What You Can Send and When
10DLC throughput is measured in message segments per second (MPS) per number. Your throughput limit depends on your brand's TCR Trust Score and the campaign type you registered.
Unregistered numbers: Effectively zero — messages are blocked before delivery on major carrier networks.
Standard registration (scores 1–49): 1–3 MPS per number. This supports small-volume sending but limits high-volume campaigns significantly.
Verified registration (scores 50–74): 4–15 MPS per number. Suitable for most small and mid-size business SMS/MMS marketing programs.
Vetted high-score registration (75–100): 15–60+ MPS per number. Required for high-volume marketing operations, enterprise SMS/MMS programs, and platform-as-a-service providers.
If you are sending at high volume on a single number, throughput limits matter. The solution is either improving your trust score through vetting or distributing volume across multiple registered numbers — each of which has its own MPS limit. Your SMS/MMS provider should help you calculate how many numbers you need to support your sending volume without throttling.
Maintaining Compliance Over Time
10DLC compliance is not a one-time registration — it requires ongoing attention across four areas:
Update campaign registration when your use case changes: If you start sending a new type of message that was not included in your original registration, you need to update your campaign registration or register a new campaign for the new use case. Sending outside your registered use case is a compliance violation.
Monitor your opt-out list: STOP requests must be honored immediately. Platforms that continue sending to opted-out numbers after a STOP request generate TCPA liability on every subsequent message. Maintain and regularly audit your suppression list.
Review your website's opt-in language: Carriers periodically verify that the opt-in process on your website matches what you described in your registration. If you redesign your forms or change your opt-in language, make sure the new language is still compliant and still matches your campaign registration.
Keep your business information current: If your legal business name, EIN, or website changes, update your brand registration. Outdated brand information that no longer matches public records can result in your registration being flagged or downgraded.
How Textmunication Handles 10DLC for You
Managing 10DLC registration — and keeping it compliant as requirements evolve — is one of the most friction-heavy parts of running a business SMS/MMS program. Most businesses either under-invest in it and suffer from delivery problems, or over-invest by spending staff time on compliance administration instead of on campaigns that drive revenue.
Textmunication handles the registration process end to end for clients on our platform. We submit brand registration, manage campaign registration across all your use cases, assign numbers, monitor throughput, and update registrations when use cases change. When carrier requirements shift — as they regularly do — we track the changes and update client registrations proactively rather than reactively.
If your current SMS/MMS delivery rates are lower than they should be, or if you are not sure whether your registration is complete and accurate, contact us for a compliance review. We will tell you exactly where you stand and what needs to be fixed.