My 10DLC registration is pending. How long does approval take, and can I send texts yet?

Pending after submission is a good sign, and there is nothing else for you to do but wait. Text message registration is not instant, because the phone carriers decide.

Approval has two pieces, and you can see the status of each under Settings, then Phone, then SMS 10DLC:

1. Brand: the carriers verify that your company is a real legal entity, that your EIN matches your business name and that the address is real. This is usually the fastest part, often done in minutes.
2. Plan (campaign): the carriers review how you plan to send SMS. This is the part that gets real scrutiny. It depends on the slowest carrier, such as AT&T or Verizon, and carriers do not tell us which one is holding it up.

An approved brand alone does not let you send texts; the plan must be approved too. With everything in order, the plan is typically approved in one to three days. If it was sent to manual review, it can take weeks. If the plan stays pending or is rejected, the usual cause is a website that does not match the application, such as no opt-in form or no privacy policy linked in the footer.

Because of this wait, we recommend not making SMS the first thing you sell. Voice AI can be set up in minutes with a phone number and works immediately, and AI on social channels such as Facebook and Instagram can be turned on immediately too. Lead with those and add SMS once it is approved. If you resell Votel, your customers go through the same process, so tell them up front that SMS approval can take days.