A2P 10DLC Brand Approval Best Practices

Notice: On July 27th, for companies in Canada, we switched to ONLY accepting the Business Number (BN) rather than the Corporation/Incorporation/Registry ID numbers for Canadian Brand Registration. 

When you register your A2P Brand, Phonexa will forward your business details to The Campaign Registry for assessment. This evaluation determines your eligibility and messaging throughput for campaigns. Here’s an overview of the brand approval process and our recommended practices to facilitate approval.

Understanding Brand Approval Process

The initial step involves a primary evaluation of your brand by The Campaign Registry. Phonexa will then automatically initiate Secondary Vetting, an additional review phase aimed at potentially enhancing your messaging throughput and limits. Following this process, you’ll be assigned a Trust Score. This score dictates your long code messaging throughput to US networks and daily message limits to T-Mobile, as outlined in the Message throughput MPS and Trust Scores for A2P 10DLC in the US.

Maximizing Your Trust Score

To ensure your Brand gets approved and secures the most favorable Trust Score, it’s crucial to accurately submit your business data. Below, we’ve compiled some best practices to adhere to, along with answers to common questions regarding Brand registration.

• Use a valid EIN for US-based companies – not a DUNS number:
  • For private and public for-profit companies, ensure that the provided EIN and Legal Company Name match business registration sources.
  • Standard A2P 10DLC brand registration requires a valid EIN number for customers with a US presence. DUNS numbers are not acceptable for US companies creating Standard A2P Brand registrations.
  • Non-profit and political organizations must ensure that the provided EIN matches the Legal Company Name available in the list of Tax-Exempt Organizations or Registered Political Organizations.
• Enter your Legal Company Name exactly as registered with the IRS:
  • When registering a US entity, input the exact Legal Company Name as registered with the IRS, which can be found on the CP 575 EIN Confirmation Letter.
  • An exact match between the Legal Company Name and the EIN as displayed on CP 575 is necessary for successful registration.
  • Do not use the Legal Company Name found on W2 or W9 forms, as they may differ from what is on the CP 575 notice.
• How to find your EIN number (for US companies):
  • Review CP 575 / 147c forms for your EIN.
  • Contact your company’s accountant or financing office to obtain the EIN.
• Use a Valid Tax ID for companies based outside of the U.S.:
  • For private and public profit companies, the provided Tax ID and Legal Company Name must match registration sources.
  • All customers creating a Business Profile must provide a valid Tax ID.
  • For Standard A2P 10DLC brand registration or customers with an International presence, a Tax ID from their country is required.
  • For businesses outside US/Canada, additional vetting may be necessary for successful brand verification.
• Guidance for companies in Canada:
  • Effective July 27th, companies in Canada must use the Business Number (BN) for Brand Registration.
  • Only the first 9 numeric digits of the BN (BN-9) will be accepted.
  • Ensure that your legal company name and address are consistent with your business registration and are properly spelled.

Common Customer Errors for EIN/Tax ID

Using an incorrect business name, such as the messaging provider’s name, DBA, or a trade name instead of the officially registered name. The Legal Name must not be abbreviated and must match exactly as filed with the IRS (US) or equivalent tax authority in other countries.

Entering a number in the EIN or Tax ID field that is not a valid EIN or home country company ID number.

Providing a DUNS number instead of an EIN for a US-based company. Using SSN to register your brand. If you filed your taxes using your SSN, register as a sole proprietor.

Further Recommendations:

• For US businesses, ensure accuracy by entering your business’s EIN into the HIPAA Space lookup website. If your business appears in the results, fill in your business name exactly as per the listing information.
• ISV-type customers needing to validate and enter information for multiple brands in the US can utilize the subscription-based EIN verification service provided by TINCheck.
• To validate a brand’s nonprofit status, use the Results for Tax Exempt Organization Search from the US IRS.

Note: Newly issued EINs or equivalent tax IDs may take a few weeks to propagate across relevant databases and validation systems. If your brand registration fails due to a tax ID mismatch and you recently registered your business for a tax ID, provide documentation to support for manual verification by third-party vendors. Documentation must be from the federal level, not the state level.

Verify Your Business Address

For all entity types, discrepancies in any of the following could result in a decreased Trust Score:

• Address/Street line
• City
• State
• Postal Code/Zip Code
• Country

Please be aware: Providing the address of a local branch or any address diverging from the officially registered company address may cause a mismatch, adversely affecting the Trust Score.

Supported Stock Exchanges

For Public Profit companies, the stock ticker symbol and the designated stock exchange must match available sources. Available Stock Ticker values are as follows:

• NONE
• NASDAQ
• NYSE
• AMEX
• AMX
• ASX
• B3
• BME
• BSE
• FRA
• ICEX
• JPX
• JSE
• KRX
• LON
• NSE
• OMX
• SEHK
• SGX
• SSE
• STO
• SWX
• SZSE
• TSX
• TWSE
• VSE
• OTHER

Other Factors

The following factors will impact the Trust Score, but cannot be influenced by data submitted:

• Company size: For all companies, points are earned for the detected size of the company based on independent sources of employee count and revenue.
• Years in operation: All companies earn points for their years in operation and domain age.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an EIN number mandatory?

For A2P standard brand registration for US entities, EIN is required and mandatory. DUNS will result in an error and puts the brand in an Unverified state preventing customers from proceeding with next steps. DUNS is not an acceptable format for A2P brand registration.

My company was acquired by another company, whose information do I provide?

The guidance is always to provide the same business information you would use for your tax reporting at that given time. 

My company’s business information has changed, how can I update my A2P Brand?

It’s important that your registered business information stays accurate and up to date for your Brand.  Currently, once your Brand and Business Profile are approved, you cannot make changes to them through the E-delivery dashboard, so if you need to update any information in your Brand/Business Profile, please reach out to Phonexa Customer Support.