TCR FAQs: General, Brand and Campaign Registration

General FAQs:

1. Can I send bulk messages without registering?

No. You are required to register with the Campaign Registry (TCR) through Textr Team to send bulk messages on behalf of your brand. After your brand and campaign are verified on TCR, you can assign phone numbers to a campaign and start sending bulk messages.

2. Can I delete my brand and campaign?

Yes, you can delete the brand that you have registered from the Campaign Registry (TCR). You can also deactivate any campaign three months after registration.

However, you should be careful of this action because deleting a brand or campaign is irrevocable. Once deleted, all details will be removed from your Textr Team account, TCR and MNOs.

3. Who should I contact if I have further concerns?

Should you have any concerns about registration, you may contact our Textr Team Support Team at support@textrapp.com.

4. How much does it cost for registration？

A brand registration fee of $4 will be charged to register a new brand. This is a one-time setup fee, and it is charged by the Campaign Registry (TCR) and passed through by Textr Team to users with no added cost.

For the campaign registration, the cost varies on the use case of the campaign.

For example:

• A Sole Proprietor campaign: a monthly fee of $0.75.
• A Low Volume Mixed Campaign: a monthly fee of $2.00.
• A Regular/Standard Campaign: a monthly fee of $10.00.

Besides, please note that effective March 1, 2022, T-Mobile has also begun to impose a one-time $50 Campaign activation fee on a new Campaign registration (excluding Sole Proprietor). For more details regarding registration fees, please refer to this post.

Brand Registration FAQs:

1. Which legal form should I choose?

Every company should choose a legal form based on the company’s type on its business documentation. You should choose a legal form from Sole Proprietor, Private company, Public Company, Non-Profit Organization, and Government.

Difference in form for Sole Proprietor vs. Private vs. Public

Sole Proprietors (SP)

SP are paying customers of Textr Team, with a billing address, but without an EIN and have lower volume needs. There will be fewer mandatory data fields, under the “Sole Proprietor” entity type. Only the “Sole Proprietor” use case will be available during the campaign registration. A monthly fee of $0.75 will be charged by the Campaign Registry (TCR).

A Sole Proprietor is subject to the following requirements:

• Only one campaign is allowed per brand, with a maximum of 5 associated phone numbers
• 1000 msg/day limit (T-Mobile) and 15msg/minute limit (AT&T) per Campaign

Private and Public Companies

Private and public companies will need to provide more information for brand verification. But both of them are able to send more messages every day compared to Sole Proprietors. The detailed cost for every campaign will depend on the use case selected.

• Private Company is a company owned by its founders, management, or a group of private investors.

In addition to the information required for Sole Proprietors, Private Company should provide its Employer ID Number(EIN) / Tax ID.

• Public Company is a company that has sold all or a portion of itself to the public via IPO, which means shareholders have a claim to part of the company’s assets and profits.

In addition to the information required for Sole Proprietors, Public Company should provide its Employer ID Number(EIN) / Tax ID, stock symbol, stock exchange.

Non-Profit Organization: 501(c)(3) designations explained

TCR supports registered Charities that want to take advantage of MNO-specific terms for their messaging. The option to register a brand as a Non-Profit Organization is open for all brands but only those organizations that hold a 501(c)(3) status will benefit from the special terms, for example, qualified organizations will be eligible for reduced/waived carrier fees.

For the 501(c)(3) designations, only the “Charity” use cases are available at the moment. Under the “Charity” use cases, a minimum of 1 and maximum of 5 use cases should be declared.

2. How can I ensure I enter the correct VAT ID/Tax ID?

The tax ID number is important information for the Campaign Registry to conduct a background check on the correct company. It’s important for you to ensure the correct VAT ID/ Tax ID is provided so that it would be easier for your company to get the brand verified.

The Tax ID definitions are different depending on countries, please get the information that is suitable for your company from the following guidance:

United States

The Employment Identification Number (EIN) is a nine-digit number issued by the IRS used to identify businesses primarily for tax purposes. You can find your EIN number on your old tax returns, credit reports, etc. Please be aware that your legal company name and address should be exactly the same as the information you used when registering with the IRS. 

Canada

If your business is registered in Canada, please enter your Canadian Corporation Number, which may be either the federal or provincial number. It is used for filing legal documents with Corporations Canada. Do NOT enter your business number or federal tax ID number. Please be aware that your legal company name and address should be exactly the same as the information you used when your company is registered in Canada.

Europe, Eastern Europe, North Atlantic, Middle East, South America, and APAC

Please enter the numeric part of your VAT ID number. Automatic VAT identification matching is currently available for the countries on the following list. 

If your country is not on this list, please provide your country’s primary company registration number or tax ID number.

3. What is DUNS/GIIN/LEI? How do filling these in affect my registration?

The DUNS Number is a unique nine-digit number that identifies business entities on a location-specific basis. Assigned and maintained by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the DUNS Number is widely used as a standard business identifier.

The GIIN is a Global Intermediary Identification Number, consisting of 19 characters. GIINs are assigned by the FATCA registration system to financial institutions and direct-reporting non-financial entities.

The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a 20-character, alpha-numeric code which is developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It connects to key reference information that enables a clear and unique identification of legal entities participating in financial transactions. 

You may provide the DUNS Number, GIIN, or LEI as an Alternative Business ID. This is a complementary and optional field to help better identify the brand. The DUNS Number in particular is important in identifying non-US Brands.

4. Who should I write as the contact person?

When you register a Brand, the Campaign Registry (TCR) will ask you to provide contact information for the Brand. This allows carriers and TCR to troubleshoot if any issue arises. So please input the correct contact details of the person who is running the brand.

5. What should I do if my brand needs a high throughput for the use case?

Throughput is determined based on who is sending the message (the Brand) and what is being sent (the use case and vertical). The best course of action to get higher throughput is to have the brands vetted, declare a use case, and provide a detailed explanation of the campaigns.

To get help on brand vetting, please contact Textr Support Team at support@textrapp.com.

6. How does vetting work?

Vetting through the Campaign Registry’s external partners represents a more detailed review of the brand with a focus on its reputation in the messaging space. The vetting result is 0-100 score that will place the brand in one of available Carrier Tiers. Vetted brands can have access to all standard use cases and have potential to qualify for any of the available classes. Different carriers have different requirements on brand vetting for the use cases.

Special use cases that require vetting include political, social, sweepstakes and charity.

Please note that a third-party vetting fee of $40 per vet will be charged for a successful vet. This fee will be reduced to $5 if the vet is unsuccessful or unscored.

7. Why would I get the “unverified” for my brand registration?

After brand registration is carried out, each brand will automatically go through an identity verification process. The Campaign Registry (TCR) will validate the EIN, legal company name and legal company address with third party independent sources and confirm the existence of the brand with a verification “status” (Verified/Unverified).

If the data that you have filled in is not correct, your brand registration would get the “Unverified” verification status.

Unverified brands cannot register 10DLC campaigns and have to obtain the “Verified” status if they wish to do so. These are the options available:

1. Any “Unverified” brand can be resubmitted for verification on the “Brand Details” page of Textr Team portal. A resubmitted fee of $4 will be charged by TCR.
2. Any “Unverified” brand can request or import external vetting through the same page, and potentially gain access to every MNO class/tier as the result. Third-party fees may be charged by the vetting partner with TCR.

In both cases, it is crucial that details about the brand are corrected and updated before any submission.

8. Can I update my brand information after submission?

If you submitted brand information but failed to be verified, your brand will have a “Unverified” status. You can update your brand information and resubmit after correcting the details. A resubmission fee of $4.00 will be charged by the Campaign Registry (TCR).

If your brand information has a “Verified” status, you can still update your brand information in Team Setting on Textr Team account portal. The information that you can update includes company address, contact, etc. Please be aware that after the update, you will need to resubmit the brand registration. A resubmission fee of $4.00 will be charged by TCR.  

9. I have registered and vetted my brand with another messaging partner. Do I have to register with Textr Team again?

Yes. In order to send bulk messages with Textr Team, you should register your brand and campaign with the Campaign Registry (TCR) through your Textr Team account. Moreover, you can only assign Textr Team phone numbers to the active campaigns in your account.

Campaign Registration FAQs:

1. How does the volume of messages affect campaign case type (low mixed volume vs. standard)?

The Campaign Registry (TCR) will define the campaign case type as standard or low volume based on the volume of messages you will send each month.

The low mixed volume is for the brands that send less than 15,000 messages per month but have multiple use cases and only need a low messaging throughput. For example, test or demo accounts, small businesses (small clinics, mom and pop shops etc). 

The standard volume of messages means the message volume per month is more than 15,000. The monthly fee is determined by your brand and the use cases that you used.

2. What’s the difference between a mixed-use case vs. a single-use case (dedicated use case) type?

For the mixed-use case, you can use a single campaign for multiple use cases, for example, a campaign for both customer care and 2FA use cases.The shortcoming of mixed-use cases is that any non-compliant messages on one use case could suspend service for the entire campaign. Besides, mixed campaigns need higher AT&T surcharges.

For the single-use case (dedicated use case), the campaign is used for only one use case. So the non-compliant messaging only affects that one campaign. And it has better AT&T surcharges and potentially better throughput. At the same time, because each use case has to be registered as its own campaign, the cost for the campaign may increase.

3. What should I write in the campaign description? Does it matter how many sample messages I include?

Please provide a detailed campaign description and more than one sample message that reflects the content your customers will actually receive. 

For example, if you fill in “sending job alerts for potential candidates” for the campaign description, the sample messages should be similar to this, “Hello xxx, this is xxx from the HR department of Indeed. I would like to confirm if you are still seeking a job?”

The information will be visible to the 10DLC ecosystem and can be used to review its legitimacy by MNOs. So it’s better to provide accurate sample messages that you would send.

4. Which campaign and content attributes should I choose?

During the campaign registration process, you will be asked to click the checkbox to indicate whether the Campaign has the following attributes. Some attributes may require you to add specific information:

SUBSCRIBER OPT-IN

Indicates whether the campaign is collecting and processing consumer opt-ins. This is a mandatory field. 

SUBSCRIBER OPT-OUT

Indicates whether the campaign is collecting and processing consumer opt-outs.This is a mandatory field.

SUBSCRIBER HELP

Indicates whether the campaign has implemented message reply allowing the receiver to contact the sender after they reply with the “HELP” keyword. This is a mandatory field.

NUMBER POOLING

Select this if you intend on using more than 50 numbers as this will require a different provisioning process on T-Mobile.

DIRECT LENDING OR LOAN ARRANGEMENT

Indicates whether the campaign include content related to direct lending or other loan arrangements.

EMBEDDED LINK

Indicates whether the campaign is using an embedded link of any kind. Note that public URL shorteners (bitly, tinyurl) are not accepted.

EMBEDDED PHONE NUMBER

Indicates whether the campaign is using an embedded phone number (except the required HELP information contact phone number).

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Indicates whether the affiliate marketing being used or was used in the construction of the campaign.

AGE-GATED CONTENT

Indicates whether the campaign include any age-gated content as defined by Carrier and CTIA guidelines.

5. Why are some special use cases required for carrier approval?

Special use cases are sensitive or critical in nature and, as a result, may require pre/post-registration approval by the MNOs. Vetting or MNO approval may be required before a brand can register a campaign for the special use case.

6. What should I do if my campaign gets rejected?

If your campaign gets rejected, you may provide more detailed descriptions and sample messages to resubmit, so you will have a higher chance to get your campaign verified. You can also deactivate the rejected campaign from the Textr Team portal and register a new one. In this case, please choose another use case that is more suitable for your brand with detailed information.

7. How many campaigns can I register under my brand?

It depends on the legal form that you choose when you register a brand.

For example, if you register your brand as Sole Proprietor, only 1 campaign is allowed per brand with a maximum of 5 associated phone numbers.

8. How do I assign phone numbers to my registered campaign?

You may assign a phone number on the Campaign Registry page of Textr Team Portal. When clicking the “+Assign” button, you can choose the numbers you’ve subscribed to and assign them to the active campaign.

Please be aware that you can’t assign numbers until the campaign registration is verified. Once the campaign is activated and the numbers you assigned are verified, you can send SMS campaigns from the numbers.

It’s important to note that only Textr Team’s phone numbers can be assigned. You can’t register directly on the Campaign Registry (TCR) and then come back to Textr Team with your phone number. 

9. How many phone numbers can be assigned to one campaign?

The phone numbers that can be assigned to one campaign depends on the legal form of your registered brand. 

• Sole Proprietor can only assign 5 numbers at most for each campaign.
• Other kinds of brands can assign up to 50 numbers for each campaign.
• If you need to assign more than 50 numbers for a campaign, please select “Number Pooling” in the “Campaign Text Attributes” section during the campaign registration.