How to complete US carrier registration

The infrastructures at US cell carriers weren’t built to handle the level of fraudulent calls and texts that occur today. The major US carriers are working together and now taking action to protect their customers.

If you send business text messages to anyone in the US, you must complete our US carrier registration form. We recommend submitting the form as soon as possible.

How new guidelines from the major US carriers will benefit businesses

This form addresses the guidelines for A2P 10DLC if you’ve heard about them from another carrier.

By completing the US carrier registration form, you can improve your text deliverability rates and lower the risk of carriers filtering your outbound text messages.

As an added perk, we'll also help you get submitted to clear the guidelines of STIR/SHAKEN if you haven't already. This helps prevent larger carriers from mistakenly showing your caller ID as “possible spam” or “scam likely” when you complete an outbound call.

How much does registration cost?

After you’ve submitted the form, OpenPhone passes your form details along to a third-party organization, The Campaign Registry, for review.

With these new guidelines advocated for by carriers, we unfortunately have to pass along their processing fees to you so we can continue to serve your business.

The review of your application from The Campaign Registry requires:

• a $4 brand registration fee and a $15 manual vetting fee that we'll bill to you based on the credit card on file
•  a $1.50 per month fee from The Campaign Registry in order to maintain your good standing with the US cell carriers 
• if The Campaign Registry finds an issue after reviewing your application, you'll need to pay a $15 resubmission fee

100% of the fees mentioned above go to The Campaign Registry to help you register and stay in good standing with the US cell carriers.

At this time, you don't need to register specific text message campaigns if you have business phone numbers with OpenPhone. All brands that register through our app fall under the Low Volume Standard use case for any campaigns through our carrier.

Who has access to US carrier registration?

Only paying customers have access to US carrier registration settings. Customers who are currently on a trial need to convert to a paid account to complete this registration. Learn how to switch to a paid account here!

How to access the US carrier registration form

You'll need to be an owner or admin of your OpenPhone workspace using OpenPhone’s web or desktop app to view and submit the US carrier registration form.

To complete the form, go to your OpenPhone account’s settings page and then click “Trust” and then “Register”:

In the form, you’ll need to provide the following details about your company:

Legal business name 

Provide the exact legal business name as provided on your EIN or other business registration documentation. This is the most common rejection for applications which can lead to a business having to resubmit and pay the $15 vetting fee again. 

Getting the correct legal business name for US-based businesses

The Legal business name you provide must not be abbreviated in any way and must appear exactly as it is filed with the IRS.

Common issues that can cause your registration to be rejected include entering the name of the messaging provider, DBA, or a trade name of the company instead of the official legally registered name.

You can also ensure you’re providing accurate information by entering your business's EIN into the HIPAA Space lookup website. If your business appears in the results, please fill in your business name exactly according to the business listing information.

Additional guidance for businesses based in Canada

Ensure that your legal company name is consistent with your corporation registration and is properly spelled before submitting.

Guidance for other regions

Companies in Europe should use the VIES VAT number validation lookup to look up their brand information before submission.

Companies in Australia should use their Australian Business Number (ABN) and use the official ABN Lookup tool to look up the information.

Companies in New Zealand should use New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) and use the official NZBN lookup tool to look up the information.

If you have multiple businesses under separate legal entities in your workspace, reach out to us.

Business type

Select from one of the following:

• Sole Proprietorship  (If you don't have a business ID and not prepared to get one, we’ll share new registration paths through our carrier soon.)
• Partnership 
• Corporation 
• Co-operative 
• Limited Liability Corporation 
• Non-profit Corporation

Company type

Choose from one of these options:

Private

• Your company has a valid Tax ID (see the “Business registration ID type and number” section below)
• Isn’t listed on a public stock exchange
• Isn’t a non-profit organization

Public Profit

Your company is listed on a public stock exchange. You’ll need to specify the exchange and ticker symbol. 

Non-Profit

Your company must have a designated Non-profit status business. 

Government

Only specify this business type if you’re part of a government-run organization.

Business registration ID type and number

At this time, we can only register customers who have one of the following business IDs:

• 'USA: Employer Identification Number = EIN'
  • If you used your SSN to file your taxes as a sole proprietor, please await further guidance before registering your business.
  • If your company is publicly traded and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), you can use the SEC's EDGAR system to look up your EIN for free.
• 'USA: DUNS Number = DUNS'
  • An EIN is preferred over DUNS.
• 'Canada: Canadian Corporation Number= CCN'
  

  • For the registration ID number, enter your Provincial Corporation Number as your Business registration number (if this does not work for you, you may alternatively use your federally-issued Canada Corporation Number):

    • Alberta Corporation Number
    • Ontario Corporation Number (make sure you enter only the numbers after the first two leading zeros)
    • British Columbia Corporation Number (make sure the BC prefix is part of the number)
    • Saskatchewan Corporation Number
    • Nova Scotia Corporation Number
    • Quebec Corporation Number
    • Manitoba Corporation Number
• 'Great Britain = Company Number'
• 'Australia = Company Number from ASIC = ACN'
• 'India = Corporate Identity Number'
• 'Estonia = VAT Number'
• Romania = VAT Registration Number'
• 'Israel = Registration Number'
• 'Other’

Industry

Choose the industry category that best reflects your organization.

Website

Your company's website; be sure to include the full URL such as http://www.xyz.com or https://www.xyz.com.

Region of operation

Select the primary region you conduct business in: 

• Africa 
• Asia 
• Europe 
• Latin America 
• USA and Canada

How do you collect consent to send text messages?

Confirm how you collect consent to send text messages. This information is provided to carriers so it's best to have this documented in case any dispute arises. Choose from one of the following options:

• Contact initiates communication via a text message to us
• Contact provides their phone number through our website or our mobile app
• Contact provides their phone number on our service agreement, contract, or signup form
• Contact shares their phone number in person, over the phone and/or email
• Other

Messaging details

In this section, you’ll need to provide at least two example texts your workspace typically sends.

For example, a salon could share:

“Hi [CUSTOMER NAME], this is Amy from XYZ Salon. I just wanted to send you confirmation that I received your request for an appointment on [DATE / TIME]. I’m really looking forward to seeing you! To opt out of receiving text messages, reply STOP.”

"Hi [Customer Name], Amy from XYZ Salon here. This is a reminder that you have an appointment scheduled with Randy for [Day, Date, Time]. We look forward to seeing you. To opt out of messages, reply STOP."

The following messaging categories and examples are not allowed on our platform:

• Payday loans
• Short term high-interest loans
• Third-party loans (e.g., auto, mortgage. “Third-party” means originating from any party other than the one which will service the loan.)
• Student loans
• Cryptocurrency

Third-party lead generation services

Examples:

• Companies that buy, sell, or share consumer information

Debt collection or forgiveness

Examples:

• Third-party debt collection (“Third-party” means originating from any party other than the one who is owed the debt. For example, a hospital could send messages regarding bills for its own patients, assuming they provided opt-in to receive that messaging. Third-party debt collectors may send transactional messages that consumers have directly opted in to; however, they cannot use SMS as a channel to collect a debt.)
• Debt consolidation
• Debt reduction
• Credit repair programs

“Get rich quick” schemes

Examples:

• Deceptive work-from-home programs
• Risk investment opportunities
• Pyramid schemes

This is different from outreach about employment as a result of compliant opt-in practices, messages from brokerages to their members, investment news alerts, or other investment-related messages.

 

Illegal substances/articles

Examples:

• Cannabis (Cannabis is federally illegal in the United States. Cannabis businesses will not be permitted to use SMS/MMS messaging in the US, regardless of message content.)
• CBD (CBD is federally legal, but is subject to varying legal restrictions across US states, so US carriers do not permit messaging related to CBD.)
• Fireworks (Fireworks are a regulated product and US and CA carriers do not permit messaging related to fireworks.)

Prescription drugs

Examples:

• Any sort of drugs that require a prescription (Offers for drugs that cannot be sold over-the-counter in the US/Canada are forbidden.)

Gambling

Examples:

• Casino apps
• Gambling websites

Gambling traffic is prohibited in the US and Canada on all number types (toll tree, long code).

 

"S.H.A.F.T." use cases

Examples:

• Sex
• Hate
• Alcohol
• Firearms
• Tobacco

While tobacco and alcohol traffic is prohibited on toll-free, it is allowed on long code, as long as proper age-gating procedures are in place. Firearms and vaping-related traffic is prohibited.

Business address

Enter the address associated with your business registration and/or tax ID. A mismatch on any of the following may lead to rejection:

• Address/street line
• City
• State
• Postal code/zip code
• Country

 

Business contact

This information is for TCR’s record. This will not be the billing contact for the TCR registration fee. We will bill you directly based on the credit card address we have on file.

What happens after my US carrier registration is submitted?

Once completed, we will submit the form to the carriers for approval. Due to the amount of businesses across the world registering, The Campaign Registry currently has a backlog of requests. So keep in mind it may take weeks for your registration to be completed on the carriers’ end, specifically for A2P 10DLC. However, we still recommend that you register as soon as possible.

If approved, your workspace and its associated phone numbers will be registered with A2P 10DLC and STIR/SHAKEN, which will help ensure that your messages are delivered and calls have a lower chance of being mislabeled as SPAM.

You can easily track the progress of your application by returning to the “Trust” settings.

What happens if my application has been rejected or failed?

If your application has been rejected or failed, please verify the details submitted and try submitting the form again. If you continue to get rejected, please reach out to support@openphone.co and we’ll be happy to help!

Register with the Free Caller Registry

We also recommend registering with the Free Caller Registry to help support the reputation of your phone numbers. The information you provide on that site is used by major US wireless carriers, including T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, and AT&T.

If you add additional numbers to your workspace, you must register any new numbers with the Free Caller Registry. However, you won’t need to complete the US Carrier Registration form again. 

More information

For more frequently asked questions around registration, check out our carrier registration FAQs.