How do I register for 10DLC (A2P) so I can send text messages?

A2P (application to person) and 10DLC (10 digit long code) registration are the same thing: getting the phone carriers' approval to send text messages to US phone numbers. You need it to send SMS from a Votel number. Phone calls need no approval.

Registration is built into Votel. Go to Settings, then Phone, and open the SMS 10DLC tab. It has two parts: your brand (your company) and your campaign, which we call a plan (how you will use texting). The wizard asks the required questions, about half about your business and half about your use case, and pre-fills as much as it can. Get everything ready before you submit, because the carriers' automated systems may check your website as soon as you click submit, and an application cannot be edited after it is submitted.

1. Brand: enter your company name, website, EIN (and say you are a private company), entity type (most people choose LLC or corporation; there is also a Sole proprietor option), vertical, address and support phone number. Use your legal company name as the entity name, not the website name, and the same address as your IRS EIN letter. This part is normally approved in minutes.
2. Use case: describe the type of messages you will send. It must match what you really do. If you say people opt in through a form on your website, that form must be there.
3. Choose the plan. We recommend Low Volume Mixed for everyone: it allows up to five use cases and costs $1.50 a month instead of $10 a month. Select everything you might send in the future, for example marketing, customer care, account notifications, appointment reminders, delivery notifications and missed call text back, even if you only plan one type at first, because you are not approved for use cases you did not choose and would have to apply again.
4. Sample messages: five samples are generated from the use cases you pick, starting with your brand name and including your website and the reply STOP to opt out text. Customize them so they are real examples of what you will send.
5. Say whether your messages include links and phone numbers, and include the link you plan to send, typically your website or your customer's, since carriers may filter links they do not recognize.
6. Enter your privacy policy link (required) and terms and conditions link (optional). The privacy policy must be linked and clickable at the bottom of your website and must say you do not buy, sell or share personal information, including mobile phone numbers.
7. Explain how people give permission to be texted, for example a form with a checkbox such as: Yes, I agree to be texted, message and data rates may apply. Reviewers go to your website to look for it.
8. The opt in and opt out messages are standard wording, so you can leave them as they are.
9. Confirm the cost and submit.

When you submit, our AI agent crawls your website and reviews your application for the common mistakes that get applications denied, such as a privacy policy link that does not work, and warns you if something is missing so you can fix it before waiting on the carriers. It tries to stop you from submitting an application with problems but does not force you.

With everything in order, approval typically takes one to three days. One approved plan can be used on up to 49 phone numbers with the same use case.

Toll-free numbers go through toll-free verification instead, which is pretty much the same process but goes to a different company.

The 5 Day Challenge covers 10DLC in detail on day four.