The short answer
10DLC stands for ten-digit long code. It is the program every US carrier requires before a business number can send SMS; without it, texts fail or get filtered as spam. We file it for you inside our own system. You give us the details once.
What we need
- The legal business name. The name the EIN is registered to at the IRS. See the note below.
- The EIN. The nine-digit federal tax ID.
- A website, or a Google Business listing. A public page that shows a real operating business.
- The business address that matches the EIN filing.
No bank statements, no incorporation papers.
Legal name and trading name are different fields
The registration carries two names. The legal name must be the entity the EIN belongs to, because that is what the registry checks; a mismatch here is what leaves a registration sitting unverified. The display name is the trading name people know you by. The two differ far more often than people expect, and a legal name that is a parent company is normal, not a mistake.
What your website has to show
The business check looks only at the name, EIN and address. The second check, on the campaign, looks at the website itself, and these are the things it rejects on:
- A privacy policy and terms page that are real, live, public pages, not the home page and not "N/A."
- A privacy policy that says mobile opt-in data is never shared with third parties for marketing.
- Terms that carry the texting disclosure: the business name, what messages people will get and how often, "message and data rates may apply," a link to the privacy policy, and how to stop.
- A visible opt-in for text messages, specific to texting and not buried in the terms, on a page where a phone number is not a required field.
A business that takes consent verbally or on paper files the exact script or a copy of the form with the campaign instead. Our portal checks a website against these rules before we file, so we can tell you what to add.
The stages
The business is registered, then the campaign, then the carrier imports it, then each number is attached. While that runs, the number reads "not attached," sending is refused with a message that the number is not registered yet, and the Messaging inbox shows a registration-pending notice. Receiving works throughout. Once a number is attached, it sends. Later numbers attach to the same registration; you do not register again. Toll-free numbers do not text on this program.
If it is rejected
Rejections are uncommon. The two usual causes are a legal name that does not match the IRS record and a website that does not clearly describe the business or lacks the items above. We tell you what was flagged, you fix it, and we resubmit.
Why this exists
Until a few years ago any number could send texts unregistered, and the result was a flood of spam. The carriers now require every legitimate business to register so their traffic is delivered and the rest is blocked. It is a carrier rule, not ours, and every provider in the US follows it. Sending to a list of people, as opposed to one-to-one conversations, has its own rules; see before you send a text blast.