Overview of 10DLC

10DLC (short for 10 Digit Long Code) is a new policy from cell phone carriers for organizations and businesses that use software to send text messages. The 10DLC scheme requires organizations and businesses to register with cell phone carriers and describe their usage before using software like Spoke Rewired to send SMS and MMS messages.

I’m a Spoke customer, what do I need to do?

Spoke Rewired fully supports sending messages with 10DLC. To take advantage of our lowest prices and improved deliverability, you should register your Spoke organization for a 10DLC brand.

Please see Adopting 10DLC to start the registration process.

While carriers have not implemented a strict deadline for registering for 10DLC, they have begun to charge higher fees and impose stricter filters for unregistered messages. As a result, we highly recommend all existing organizations register for 10DLC as soon as possible.

If the time required to complete registration is an issue, you can continue to send unregistered traffic at a higher cost per message while undergoing the registration process. As soon as you complete the registration process and your registration is vetted and approved, we will transition you to our registered pricing plan so you can take advantage of our lowest message prices.

We are committed to supporting you throughout the registration process, and offer registration and ongoing 10DLC enrollment at no additional cost. Contact us at any time at support@spokerewired.com.

I’m new to Spoke, how does this affect me?

If you need to send messages as quickly as possible, you can begin sending unregistered messages while starting the 10DLC registration process. As soon as you complete the registration process and your registration is vetted and approved, we will transition you to our registered pricing plan so you can take advantage of our lowest message prices.

Please see Adopting 10DLC to start the registration process.

We are committed to supporting you throughout the process; contact us at any time at support@spokerewired.com.

Pricing

Spoke Rewired offers its lowest prices to organizations registered with 10DLC. We continue to support sending messages without registration at an additional cost (imposed by carriers).

Please refer to the Spoke Rewired pricing page on our website for more information.

Comparison of 10DLC registered sending vs unregistered

History and background

Before the development of 10DLC, cell phone carriers discouraged organizations and businesses from using software to send messages from local phone numbers (in carrier jargon: long codes) to other local phone numbers. Carriers pushed organizations to instead purchase short code numbers or toll-free numbers, which required lengthy and expensive setup procedures and opt-in procedures.

In the 2010s, software was developed to avoid these extensive setup costs and procedures. Instead of sending messages from short-code or toll-free numbers, this software provided ways to send text messages from individual cell phones to other cell phones. This concept, known as peer-to-peer texting, allowed political campaigns and organizers to quickly contact voters and volunteers. Eventually, this ecosystem developed into modern texting software, which allows users to directly send text messages via internet telecom services without managing individual cell phones.

The advent of software-based texting lowered technical and financial barriers for sending texts, leading to an increase in spam. In response, cell phone carriers introduced the 10DLC policy to provide a sanctioned platform for organizations and businesses to send SMS and MMS messages using long codes. The stated objective of the 10DLC program is to protect consumers from unwanted spam while still allowing businesses to better connect with their customers.

10DLC is intended to reduce spam in two ways:

1. Organizations register themselves as a 10DLC brand, and all messages sent on 10DLC channels will be associated with this brand. This registration costs money and deanonymizes message traffic, increasing the risk to spammers.
2. Increased costs to send 10DLC messages and increasing penalty fees on unregistered messages. A small increase in price can eliminate spammer profits, and spammers aiming to avoid 10DLC registration face even higher costs.