10DLC — The Next Step in A2P Communications
As application-to-person (A2P) messaging continues to surge, with estimates hitting 3.5 trillion messages by 2023, the need to ensure that businesses are able to send and deliver compliant messages has increased.
At the same time, it has also become more important than ever to protect consumers and their data from abusive messages. While regulations like GDPR and TCPA have been enacted by legislators for this purpose, additional steps have become necessary to empower businesses and protect consumers.
Earlier this year, Verizon took the next step as the first carrier to launch their A2P 10DLC (or 10-digit long code) services for SMS and MMS. As other carriers plan to do the same, we’ll walk you through how we got to the current state of A2P and 10DLC, more about the move Verizon has made and the future of A2P messaging.
A2P and 10DLC — how we got here.
A2P messaging encompasses any message sent to a person from an application. This is typically used by businesses for use cases like appointment reminders, customer support, shipping updates and marketing messages. As peer-to-peer (P2P) messaging began to rise, carriers introduced the short code number to allow businesses to communicate with their customers using SMS. However, while short codes are capable of delivering large amounts of messages, they can also be expensive and the process to get them is sometimes arduous. They can also present a challenge for businesses needing two-way communication, as short codes are limited in this capacity.
The limitations of the short code were short lived as Programmable SMS API solutions came to the market. These APIs allowed businesses to build applications that could send messages over long code numbers. As this type of messaging gained popularity, toll-free numbers with text messaging capabilities were also introduced giving businesses yet another option to choose from when communicating via SMS. Though long code and text-enabled 800 numbers made SMS more accessible to a larger number of businesses, they too had disadvantages in capacity — long code and toll-free numbers were simply limited in their ability to deliver the higher volumes needed by businesses.
As A2P and P2P messaging continues to grow, it has made it more challenging for carriers to identify good faith actors and malicious senders which in turn makes it more difficult to protect consumers from unwanted messages. Because of this, carriers have decided to create dedicated 10DLC services for businesses to send A2P messages. This both empowers businesses to send compliant messages and the content they desire with greater deliverability while simultaneously giving carriers the ability to identify unwanted messages and agents and block them from the network.
Verizon’s first steps to 10DLC
Specifically designed for A2P long code messages, Verizon’s dedicated 10DLC service is the first move by a major carrier to step into the future of SMS. This move means that businesses will have greater access to improved messaging capabilities like increased deliverability and higher volume capacities. These benefits also open the market to more businesses that want to adopt SMS as a form of communication, as they can be achieved at a lower cost than traditional short code messaging.
While 10DLC serves businesses positively, it will also benefit consumers. A dedicated 10DLC service gives Verizon the improved ability to identify businesses and bad actors that are sending unsolicited messages in violation of SMS regulations. This in turn leads to greater consumer and personal data protection while bolstering SMS as a trusted channel of communication for consumer and business needs.
For businesses looking to use Verizon’s 10DLC service, the benefits are clear. Since the launch of their 10DLC service in January of this year, Verizon has been charging A2P messages sent from local long code numbers a fee of $.0025 per message, which is relatively small per message but racks up easily over time and heavy volumes. Businesses can avoid this fee by making the switch now, which is also quite easy as Verizon doesn’t charge a fee to move to the 10DLC service and businesses will be able to keep the same phone number.
Where we go from here
Given the current growth of SMS and MMS, A2P messaging is expected to grow by $11 billion over the next 5 years. Because of this growth, businesses should expect changes to be made in the near term across other carriers for sending SMS messages. AT&T has announced that they will be introducing commercial 10DLC numbers in the first half of 2020, though that timeline is subject to change. Sprint and T-Mobile also plan on introducing 10DLC numbers for A2P messaging, however they have yet to announce a timeline for the service. For businesses sending SMS across the globe it is important to note that A2P message deliverability may be impacted by local country regulations. Though Verizon is the first US carrier to adopt a 10DLC service for SMS and MMS, businesses can expect carriers in other countries to move to similar services.
To learn more about 10DLC, check out the Telnyx blog today.
