10DLC webinar takeaways: What’s new in 2019

10-Digit Long Codes will vastly impact the A2P market in the year 2020

This was just one takeaway from Sinch’s most recent webinar: 10DLCs: What You Need to Know.

Our discussion focused on the evolving landscape in which brands are communicating with their customers in the A2P SMS channel today, and how the policy changes outlined in 2019 will impact future campaigns for both enterprises and end users.

10DLCs are set to become more important in the US market than anywhere else. We expect trusted, secure A2P communications with businesses users will engage with: rideshare applications, food delivery and chat enabled applications.

Missed the webinar? No problem, here’s a quick synopsis of our deep dive into 10DLCs:

Shared Short Codes Leave Subscribers Vulnerable

When short codes are shared between multiple brands many things can go wrong. It is likely the carrier doesn’t have clear awareness or responsibility for the content being routed through those codes. Unfortunately, that means one brand violating the spam policy can cause a shutdown of multiple communication lines if spam or content violations arise.

Often, the subscriber doesn’t have a clear understanding of opt-in or opt-out processes because consent wasn’t properly obtained at the start. Excluding a select few enterprises and use cases already provisioned, shared short codes are generally not recommended. They carry a significant risk of spam delivery if the (established) campaign Review and Approval processes at onboarding is not managed.

Failure of Message Senders to vet Content Providers and educate them about compliant consent mechanisms only add to issues. Bulk Spammers are smart and they will take advantage of Message Senders that do not have robust active monitoring in place.

What are the benefits of a 10DLC?

• It’s a cost-effective and localized way to speak to your audience, meaning you can leverage local brand recognition via an existing voice number already assigned to your business
• There will be an increased throughput compared to today for Verified Senders
• Support for voice calls, so you can send text messages to your customers and they’ll be able to call you back on the same number if that suits them better than replying by text

10DLC will enrich engagements, which we love to do!

Carriers are hoping to mitigate the amount of spam reaching their subscribers. As carriers continue to publish their policies on A2P messaging, we’ve seen some predictions on sanctioned use cases. For example, subscribers should see less spam and content that violates content guidelines on 10DLC. Because they’re local, the ten-digit long code route has porting available to convert existing landlines to business numbers with voicemail capability. We predict this will benefit the small-to-medium businesses building a branded local presence to their customers. With long codes, customers can also send SMS messages and make voice calls directly from the customer service SMS conversation.

Sinch is now monitoring all 10DLC content we send, and all aggregators should be doing the same. Numerous rulings in 2019 addressed the elimination of spam and robocalls to better serve the rights of the user. Traffic classifications are defined by use case, message frequency and applied consent.

With a minimal onboarding process already set up to verify the Trust Factor of the brand, the rollout is often quite fast compared to short codes. Going forward, Sinch and other aggregators will continue to verify the authentic identity of the brand, their risk of spam, clarity of opt-in and opt-out processes, excluding any brand that violates the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices.

What Changes Should I Expect in 2020?

We have many predictions on the changes coming soon. Recent legal rulings in 2019 are urging telecommunication providers to implement SHAKEN/STIR standards. What does this mean?

The level of liability is no longer distinct between Short Code, Long Code or Toll-Free Numbers. The A2P classification is shared among all three categories. Based on severity, violations of CTIA guidelines will be taken seriously, no matter the routing category.

The goal is that you should expect the same transparency and responsibility for brands whether they use a short-code or a long-code local number. Brands want to get in touch with their customers, and customers don’t want spam calls or texts. The onboarding of approved campaigns, visibility into all content in every layer and unambiguous opt-in and opt-out commands all expand the value of A2P 10DLC and their reach to customers today. The best customer experience goes hand-in-hand with welcomed communications.

Sinch will keep you up to date on the latest info and any steps you’ll need to take to avoid interruptions to your service. Get in touch with your Account Manager and Sinch’s compliance experts to discuss what the best solution might be for your existing shared Short Code. We’ve got years of experience to draw on and a team that really knows their stuff, so give us a shout on sales@sinch.com and we’ll be happy to help!